Toreros run out Rebels, wrangle Gauchos

The USD men’s tennis team looked stronger than ever in their two matches this weekend, as they went undefeated with victories over the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Saturday and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels on Sunday. These two wins improved the Toreros’ overall record to 5-1 and kept their octane levels running on high.
“We just have to keep our foot on the gas pedal and compete every day,” junior Nils Schive said. “If we do this simple task, we can’t be stopped.”
The Toreros are certainly looking unstoppable in this three match win streak. To extend the win streak to two, they handled the Gauchos on Saturday in a match that lasted 4 1/2 hours. USD got behind early by dropping two doubles matches, both by a score of 8-3. But the Toreros then dominated the singles matches, which has been their strong point so far this season.
Junior Dean Jackson, who surprised many critics at the NCAA Singles Championships a year ago, won the first game for the Toreros in straight sets. Nikola Bubnic, a sophomore from Serbia and the 82nd ranked player in the nation by the ITA, then grabbed the lead for the Toreros with his straight sets win.
San Diego would battle back after letting the Gauchos tie it at two and take a 3-2 lead after tallying a point from Thibaut Visy. The lone senior on the team, Charl Wolmarans, would come through and give USD the decisive singles point to put them in the lead for good at 4-2. Schive would then add the last singles point for a final score of 5-2.
The next day, USD looked ready when they took the courts against the Runnin’ Rebels, but the impending rain caused the match to be delayed for four hours.
“With the rain delays it was hard to play and then get back out there and keep the intensity level up,” Schive said. “But Bubnick really set the tone after the delay and won eight games in a row which really pumped us up.”
The Toreros are no stranger to rain delays, as they have already encountered four this spring. They used this experience to run the Rebels out of San Diego. Bubnic earned his singles point by defeating his opponent in straight sets. After a Torero loss by Visy, the veteran Wolmarans would use his experience to get the lead back for the Toreros 2-1.
Jackson’s intense singles match against 108th ranked Medhi Bouras proved to be a nail-biter and momentum swinger. After a relatively easy win in the first set, Jackson dropped the second set to set up a dramatic third set for a dominant two point overall lead. Medhi would force a break point in this decisive set, but Jackson would use his upset techniques once again to come away with the third set 7-6 and a 4-2 overall lead for the Toreros.
Abdullah Hashem would eventually clinch the match with the last Torero point and send the Rebels home with the loss.
“It was a great weekend,” Schive said. “We had to grind through the delays and stay focused, but we were able to do that and get two big wins over two quality teams, so we were pleased.”
The Toreros look to extend their win streak on the road against California Polytechnic today.