The UC Riverside men’s tennis team began their 2012-13 season last Friday with doubles and singles matches at the Pre-Regional Tournament in Irvine. The Highlanders that participated in the singles matches are Jimmy Roberts, Luis Gastao, Kevin Griffin, Kelly Dickson, Calvin Ngo, Marcus Vizcarro, Julian Ruffin and David Stanko.
Ryan Cheung and Shuhei Shibahara for the UC Irvine Anteaters faced Riversides duo of Roberts and Gastao. Roberts and Gastao would lose 8-9.
Jonathan Poon and Reo Asami for the Anteaters faced Riverside’s Ruffin and Nago and would defeat them 8-6. Tyler Pham and Jonathan Hammel for the Anteaters defeated Griffin and Vizcarra 8-0. The pair of Peters and Dickson for UC Riverside lost to UC Irvine’s Justin Agbayani and Caryl Hernandez 4-8.
The first round of singles was not that much better, as one UC Riverside player won. Julian Ruffin won his first round against UCI’s Cheung, 6-3 and 6-4, and then defeated Wofford’s Galloway in the second round.
Roberts for Riverside lost 2-6 and 3-6 to Irvine’s Pham but would later redeem himself as he came up victorious against Wofford’s Drew Superstein 7-6 (4) and 6-3. The only other Highlander player to win was Vizcarra in the second round against Wofford’s Harrison Smith 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.
The UC Riverside Men’s Tennis Team continued play Saturday at the Pre-Regional Tournament with wins in both singles and doubles.
Wofford’s duo of Jackson Keith and Rob Gallowa defeated Riverside’s duo Roberts and Griffin 8-5. The only win for the Highlanders in the doubles came from Griffin and Ngo when they defeated Concordia’s Wickenhaus and Hovis 9-8.
In singles, the Highlanders were victorious in three of their matches. Jimmy Roberts defeated Klisinic from Concordia 6-2, 6-0, while Simon Peters won 6-2, 6-1 over Hovis of Concordia, and David Stanko won 6-2, 6-0 over Casad from Concordia.
The men’s tennis team will look to revive themselves this year as they ended their season last year on a seven game losing streak. The men’s tennis team’s overall record last year was 6-18, but they had the help from Austin Andres and Feliz Macherez who are have graduated. The Highlanders will look to get more contribution from Kevin Griffin and Kelly Dickson this year. Those two paired up last year as a duo and went 0-4.
UC Riverside concluded play on Sunday at the Pre-Regional with wins in five of their seven singles matches. Jimmy Roberts was the only Highlander that had four sets as he needed a tiebreaker to win his match 6-4, 4-6, 10-3, defeating LMU’s Kordschacia.
Riverside’s Julian Ruffin defeated LMU’s Daniel Simko 6-4 and 6-1. Kelly Dickson easily defeated Concordia’s Jordan Hovis 6-2, 6-1, while Marcus Vizcarra defeated Concordia’s Casad 6-3 and 6-2, and Highlander Simon Peterson defeated Concordia’s Patrick Szermeta 7-5 and 6-3.
Last year’s experience from Griffin, Dickson, Simon Peters and Jimmy Roberts will be needed to help guide the squad which is filled with five freshmen. The next tournament for the Highlanders is at the ITA West-South Regional Championship Oct. 19-22.
