Roller coaster ride continues for Toreros tennis

The Toreros men’s tennis team has faced a diversity of adversity in the 2010 season. They started the season 2-0 only to get humbled by the University of Southern California, the top ranked team in the country at the time. The Toreros then surged back after the embarrassing 7-0 loss to USC and won five of their next six matches against a majority of teams that were nationally ranked.
Through their next stretch of ranked opponents, complacency and an injury to Dean Jackson, the WCC player of the month in February, would hinder the Toreros. Jackson was out for the singles match against the 34th ranked University of Arizona and then had to sit out against Boise State University and 35th ranked Brigham Young University.
Fatigued by an extremely tough schedule and the loss of their star player, the Toreros displayed their best team effort of the season against the University of Utah. Players such as freshman Thiabaut Visy, who is still learning the ways of collegiate tennis, came through when the team needed him most during their trip to Utah last month.
This great team play continued against the Tulane Green Wave two weeks ago as the 57th ranked Toreros came up victorious by a score of 5-2, aided by the return of Jackson and their first doubles point in their last four matches. The win improves the Toreros to 9-6 overall and gives them two consecutive wins for the first time since February.
“We were able to come together in doubles and get three wins, which set us up nicely before singles,” junior Nils Schive said.
San Diego took a 3-0 overall advantage with singles wins from Visy and junior Abdullah Hashem. Visy won his second straight singles competition after dropping five straight. USD then surrendered a singles loss, but Jackson got the Toreros back on track with a victory in straight sets.
With a 4-1 overall advantage, Nikola Bubnic, ranked 100th at the time, grabbed the final point for the Toreros, marking an impressive 12 singles wins this season. His stellar performance against the Green Wave bumped him up six spots to 94th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s individual rankings. Tulane would garner one more point, but it would not be enough to keep USD from victory.
“We had a rough week where the team as a whole was pretty tired,” stated Schive. “But we came together as a team and kept fighting.”
The Toreros will get a chance to recharge after battling through an extremely tough national schedule as they have a couple days to rest and focus on their upcoming match up north versus the Fresno State Bulldogs on the road this Sunday.