LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The 5th-ranked UC San Diego men's tennis team rallied from a 2-1 early deficit to defeat cross-town rival Point Loma Nazarene University by a 6-3 score on Tuesday afternoon at the Northview Tennis Courts on the UCSD campus. With the victory the Tritons improve to 14-5 overall while dropping the Sea Lions to 12-4 on the season.

PLNU jumped out to an early 2-1 score after winning at the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles spots on the ladder. The Tritons lone point in doubles play came at No. 2 where Steven Oechel and Seth Spector posted an 8-1 victory over Craig Johnson and Cassidy Crail.

In singles play, UCSD captured four of the six matches in straight sets while winning one of the other two in three sets. Freshman Bijan Moallemi won at the No. 2 slot on the ladder by scores of 6-2, 5-7 and 6-2 while Steven Oechel won the first game of his match by a 5-7 score before losing by a 7-5 margin in game two and a 10-4 score in the third set super-tiebreaker.

Head coach Eric Steidlmayer and his squad will return to action on Wednesday afternoon, playing at Cal Poly Pomona. The Tritons will then head to northern California to take on Sonoma State on Saturday and Santa Clara on Sunday to conclude their regular season.

UC San Diego 6, Point Loma 3

Singles:

1. Eric Rubens (UCSD) def. Christian Gerloff (PLNU) 6-2, 6-2

2. Bijan Moallemi (UCSD) def. Jonathan Bowman (PLNU) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2

3. Seth Spector (UCSD) def. Craig Johnson (PLNU) 6-4, 6-1

4. Brandon Low (UCSD) def. Curt Wheeler (PLNU) 6-1, 6-0

5. Travis Albaugh (PLNU) def. Steven Oechel (UCSD) 5-7, 7-5, 10-4

6. Kazumi Negishi (UCSD) def. Landon Hilker (PLNU) 6-0, 6-4

Doubles:

1. Bowman/Gerloff (PLNU) def. Rubens/Blake Meister (UCSD) 8-3

2. Oechel/Spector (UCSD) def. Johnson/Cassidy Crail (PLNU) 8-1

3. Wheeler/Hilker (PLNU) def. Moallemi/Ramesh Thondapu (UCSD) 8-5