Freshmen Smita Sabada and doubles pair, Ariel Lee and Qing “Vivian” Wen go undefeated in UCSD-A 3rd-4th place finish at SDSU First Annual Tennis Tournament held on November 7-8 at San Diego State.

The team had a tough pool going into the first day of the tournament, having to play Pepperdine-B, SDSU-B and rivals UCI-A. UCSD gained momentum in their first round against Pepperdine-B as the team doesn’t lose a single set to win 30-9. In the next round, the team’s undefeated spree continues as Co-Captain Erik Wu rallies to win Men’s Singles 6-4. The rest went as well as one could hope winning a whooping 30-7 against SDSU-B. The toughest opponents in-group stages were rivals UCI. Although they played only two returning members from their team last year, we knew they’d be the toughest obstacle. Men’s doubles, Co-Captain Kyle Vo and returner Justin Yang win in a flashy 6-2 fashion. The rest of the team followed with as Smita Sabada had a crushing victory of 6-2 against her toughest opponent yet.

The domination didn’t end there as the team secured the first seed going into bracket play on Sunday by beating UCI 25-17. 8 of 16 teams made it to the following day to the single elimination bracket and with the first seed, UCSD was set to face CSUN. CSUN proved to be a much harder match than expected as the 3 of the 4 matches leading up to mixed ended within a two game differential. With the score close, mixed doubles pair, Charles “Charlie” Tamer and Freshmen Mikaela “Illinois” McNally was sent off to finish the first round. The mixed match ended as quick as it began as the mixed pair won in a dominating fashion of 6-1, pushing the team into the semi finals where they would face host SDSU-A. The team hoped for revenge as the opponents took them out in the last tournament. We were up against very familiar faces as the battle for San Diego began. Ariel and Vivian win in a heart-throbbing tiebreaker, 6-5 while men’s doubles lose in a close 5-6. Freshmen Smita took the results in her own hands as she won against two different opponents, 6-1. At this point, the team felt so close to the final match as UCSD was up 4 games going into the final match. Needless to say, it ended in heartbreaking fashion as host SDSU and soon champions would win the mixed set 6-0 setting the final score 22-24. All together, it was a great experience to see the vast amount of improvement we have made over the last month. It does not seem far to say that we can take home the tournament victory in the next upcoming tournament at UCLA on November 21-22.