KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii ? The 36th-ranked UC San Diego men's tennis team ended its season on Thursday, falling to No. 6 Hawaii Pacific, 5-1, as part of the
NCAA Division II West Regional. The lone
win for the Tritons on the day came at No. 3 doubles thanks to the team of
Samuel Ling and Naveen Dixit. UCSD ends
the season at 12-11, having entered their West Regional match-up with wins in
four of their previous five matches, including 9-0 sweeps at Colorado Christian
and Mesa State
and close 5-4 wins at Sonoma
State and UC Santa Cruz,
all coming on the road.
Ling and Dixit were able to capture the lone
point for head coach Eric Steidlmayer's squad with an 8-5 win against HPU's
Alexsander Markov and Anton Samuilau.
Ling, a freshman, also scored five points in singles match against Jan
Hroch, losing in sets of 6-2, 6-3.
Vincent Nguyen's match at No 2, Dixit's match at No. 3, and Jake Fellow's
match at No. 5 did not finish as a result of the Sea Warriors securing the team
victory early. Dixit led 6-3, 3-1 at the
stop of his match against Anton Samuilau.
Earlier in the season, Hawaii Pacific was victorious over UC
San Diego in La Jolla on the Northview Tennis
Courts by a 7-2 final score, with Fellow winning his No. 3 singles match and Erik
Elliot and Kazumi Negishi teaming for a win at the top doubles spot. The Sea Warriors now advance to the
NCAA National Tournament in Altamonte
Springs, Florida,
scheduled for May 13-16.
With only two seniors on this year's squad, Negishi and Ramesh Thondapu,
head coach Eric Steidlmayer will look to continue improvement made during this
season as the Tritons attempt to extend their 10-year streak of postseason appearances
in 2010.
Hawaii Pacific 5, UC San Diego 1
Doubles Competition
No. 1 Nikola Petrov/Daniel Luedi (HPU) def. Kazumi Negishi/ Erik Elliott (UCSD)
8-2
No. 2 Hendrik Bode/ Sebastian Bader (HPU) def. Vincent Nguyen/ Brandon Stevenson
(UCSD) 8-0
No. 3 Samuel Ling/Naveen Dixit (UCSD) def. Aleksander Markov/Anton Samuilau
(HPU) 8-5
Singles Competition
No. 1 Nikola Petrov (HPU) def. Kazumi Negishi (UCSD) 6-2,6-2
No. 2 Vincent Nguyen (UCSD) vs. #30 Hendrik Brode (HPU) 3-6, 0-3 Did Not Finish
No. 3 Naveen Dixit (UCSD) vs. Anton Samuilau (HPU) 6-3, 3-1 Did Not Finish
No. 4 #41 Danial Luedi (HPU) def. Chapman Chan (UCSD) 6-1, 6-2
No. 5 Jake Fellow (UCSD) vs. Sebastian Bader (HPU) 5-7, 1-3 Did Not Finish
No. 6 Jan Hroch (HPU) def. Samuel Ling (UCSD) 6-2, 6-3
