HOUSTON, Texas ? The 18th-ranked UC San Diego men's tennis team continued play in the NCAA Division II Championships Wednesday with a match in the Sweet 16 against the No. 4 Drury University Panthers at the Memorial Park Tennis Center.  Drury entered the action with 18 straight wins and the Panthers continued to play well pulling out a 5-2 victory over the Tritons.  UCSD finishes its season with a record of 11-12.  DU moves into the quarterfinals and improves to 24-2 on the season.

UCSD started out strong in doubles play winning at the top two spots.  At No. 1 senior Eric Rubens teamed with sophomore Alex Placek to defeat Drury's nationally ranked No. 4 team of Stefan Borg and Nikola Prpic 8-6.  The Tritons No. 2 team of sophomore Bijan Moallemi freshman Erik Elliott staged and impressive victory over Anton Khadasesvich and Federico Levi 8-5.  Kazumi Negishi and Alex Whitmore could not bring the win for the Tritons at No. 3 as they fell to Nahom Serekeberhan and Florian Perche 8-1.

Drury's singles ability proved too much for UCSD.  The Panthers picked up wins at the No. 1, 2, 4, and 5 positions to earn the victory and were leading in the other two matches.  Moallemi lost to Borg 6-1, 6-2.  Rubens fell to Levi 6-4, 6-4.  Brandon Low was defeated by Khadasevich 6-3, 6-4 and Placek was denied by Garcia Santos 6-2, 6-4.

“We played good doubles and average singles and lost to a good team,” lamented head coach Eric Steidlmayer.  “We competed hard today but in the end didn't improve enough during the season to win here in the tournament.”