UC San Diego Will Rise Again After Lose in Cal Poly
UC San Diego brought one team to the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Annual Fall Tournament held on October 17-18th. It was our hope to start off the new year strong, especially after the loss of last year’s captain Evan Dankiewicz and former varsity player, Melody Wu. The Tritons started off strong with a dominant performance in Women’s Doubles, as returning player Ariel Lee and newcomer Qing Wen crush Cal Poly SLO 6-1. Men’s Doubles followed with a close victory as Charles Tamer and John Rabalais win 6-4. Up 12-5 going into singles, we were highly confident in taking home the victory. With no loss of momentum, singles kept the lead while mixed finished the matched at 26-17. With the first win in the bag, the butterflies seem to slowly disappear.
Unfortunately, the next round did not fair as well. In a flash, USC-A was up 1-12 after doubles. Men’s and Women’s singles put up a much more valiant fight with Mikaela McNally leading the charge with a 6-4 score in her first victory as a part of UC San Diego club tennis. Down 11-22, mixed doubles pair, Charles Tamer and Mikaela McNally attempted to make the comeback. With a crushing 6-2 victory for the pair, UC San Diego was only down 17-24. The match was lost on the next game, with the finishing score of 17-25, marking the end of day 1.
The next day, we were all very prepared to play against rival San Diego school, SDSU. Captain Kyle Vo and Charles Tamer attempted to take the W for UC San Diego in Men’s Doubles. The match was never more than a one game differential and ends up going into tiebreaker. It ended with a loss for the home team 5-6 with a deficit of 7-12 going into singles. Captain Erik Wu, who is 1-1 at this point, attempts to end his weekend positive. A long tough match for the captain, but Erik Wu gets a huge break of serve bringing the score to 5-4 and only needs to hold his serve to bring the match to an end. He wins big in the last game. Lastly, being slightly down going into mixed, John Rabalais and Denise Ogranovich attempt to take the victory home. It was another jaw-dropping match that ended in a victory in tie-breaker as John and Denise connect on their returns. They continue in overtime and won two more games. Unfortunately, they lost the next game, ending UC San Diego’s run in the tournament 22-27.
Although the tournament did not turn out as planned, we now know not to come into a tournament with too much confidence. We will be much more prepared coming this November at our next tournament as SDSU. With the first tournament in the books, we still see a bright future for the team as new members, Mikaela Mcnally, Qing Wei, and many others show lots of potential.
