Tennis splits on road swing

The USD men’s tennis team faced another difficult week en route to the WCC tournament that is only two weeks away. Trying to gain some momentum for the conference tournament, the Toreros came up just short in a thriller against San Diego State in the annual city championship last Wednesday. But even though the Toreros valiant comeback was overcome with defeat, head coach Brett Masi was pleased with his team’s effort.
“It was great to see our Nils and Abdullah fight back from where they were at,” Coach Masi said.
Junior Abdullah Hashem tied the overall score at three by winning his match after falling 4-6 in the first set.
Junior Nils Schive had the chance to put the Aztecs away in the final match of the day. Tied at three, the match between Schive and the Aztecs’ Luis Rattenhuber was as dramatic as any this season. The match came down to a third-set tie breaker, where Schive had the lead 6-5 in this set after being down 4-1. Just one point away from victory, Schive gave up a break point to Rattenhuber, who eventually outlasted Schive.
“It was just unfortunate that Nils couldn’t finish that out,” Masi said. “It would have been big for his confidence. We just need to do a better job of not putting ourselves in a hole and having to dig out all the time,” Masi said after the defeat at the hands of the Aztecs.
The Toreros would dig themselves in an even deeper hole against a quality opponent. The team traveled to play the 28th ranked Fresno State Bulldogs this past Sunday. USD was not able to become the first team this season to beat the Bulldogs at their home stadium, as the Bulldogs have posted a perfect 9-0 record in Fresno this season.
The Bulldogs set the pace early, taking both doubles points for an early 2-0 cushion heading to singles play. But the good news for the Toreros was that junior Dean Jackson and sophomore Nikola Bubonic won both of their singles matches.They improved to a combined 26-4 on the season. These are the only two points the Toreros garnered the entire match. The bad news is that senior Charl Wolmarans injured himself against the Bulldogs.
“We just need to get healthy between now and the WCC tournament,” Masi said. “We have been banged up all season and now we are down a man with Charl out. Hopefully he gets back for the WCC tournament so we can make a run at Pepperdine and a conference title.”
The 5-2 loss to Fresno State was not what the Toreros needed to gain confidence for the conference tournament. Coach Masi still seems to think health and determination can lead to success.
“The Fresno loss was tough, but like I said we are short a man,” Masi said. “The guys just need to keep fighting and get healthy so we can be ready for conference.”
The Toreros kept fighting this past Monday against the Sacramento State Hornets, winning by a score of 4-2 for the first time in two matches. Jackson, Bubnic, Schive and Hashem were all victorious in the win for the Toreros. The team travels to UCLA next Tuesday for their season finale.