The Big Dance
The 29th-ranked Aztec men's tennis team will make its fourth NCAA appearance in the last five team championships when San Diego State travels north to Los Angeles for the opening two rounds of the tournament on May 11-12 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
San Diego State will face Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Hampton (15-6) in the first round of the championship on Saturday. Fourth-seeded and regional host UCLA will face UC Santa Barbara on Saturday with the two first-round winners meeting on Sunday. Match times for the first and second rounds are listed to the left. All four of the teams in the region received automatic berths into the championship by virtue of winning their conference title.
Hampton is 15-6 on the season and ended the regular-season by winning five-straight matches and 10 of 11 to end the season. The Pirates posted a perfect 6-0 regular-season record in the MEAC and then swept through the league postseason tournament, defeating Florida A&M, 4-3, in the championship match. This is Hampton's third trip to the Division I NCAA Tournament, also qualifying for the championship in 1999 and 2001. The Pirates will mark just the seventh unranked opponent San Diego State has faced this season. The Aztecs are 6-0 against teams outside the top 75 this spring, and has won 12 of their last 13 matches against unranked foes,
dating back to last season.
The winners of the 16 second-round matches will advance to the team championships in College Station, Texas beginning on May 18.
Aztecs In The NCAAs
San Diego State is making its fourth trip to the NCAA team tournament, with all four of the appearances coming in the last five seasons. In each one of the Aztecs' three previous tournament appearances, San Diego State has advanced farther into the tournament - losing in the first round in 1998, the second round in 1999 and the round of 16 in 2000.
The Aztecs started playing tennis in the spring of 1936 and took 62 years to advance to its first NCAA tournament before become a staple in the event. In two of the three seasons San Diego State has made the tournament, the team that eliminated the Aztecs went on to play for the national championship (UCLA in 1999 and Virginia Commonwealth in 2000).
Last season, marked the first time since 1997 that San Diego State did not qualify for the national championship. Although the Aztecs did not advance as a team, Oliver Maiberger did earn All-America status by advancing to the
third round of the NCAA Singles Championship.
The Aztec-Pirate Series
San Diego State and Hampton have not met according to school results dating back to 1980. The two have a pair of common opponents from the 2002 seasons. The Aztecs posted victories over 25th-ranked Virginia Commonwealth and 35th-ranked Tulsa, two teams that defeated the Pirates earlier this season. San Diego State defeated the Rams 4-3 at the USTA/ITA Men's National Indoor Team Championship in Louisville, Ky. on March 14. Three weeks earlier, on Feb. 24, VCU disposed of Hampton 7-0 in Richmond. San Diego State posted a 4-3 victory over the Golden Hurricane on April 5. Back on Jan. 26, Hampton suffered a 6-1 loss at Tulsa.
The Aztec-Bruin Series
A pessimist may say that the San Diego State-UCLA series has been slightly one-sided, with the Bruins owning a 25-0 series advantage. The two teams tangled in Los Angeles, back on Feb. 19, with the Bruins claiming a 5-2 victory. San Diego State won the doubles point, but UCLA
claimed one through five singles to win the match. The teams have met once in NCAA play, with UCLA posting a 4-1 victory in the second round of the 1999 tournament.
The Year Of The Aztec
The 2001-02 season has been an historic year for the San Diego State men's tennis team. From playing co-host to the WorldTeam Tennis Championships to winning the school's first grand slam title to claiming the Mountain West
Conference championship, the season will go down as one of the most memorable in Aztec history.
Below are some of the season's highlights:
* In September, San Diego State played host to the third annual World TeamTennis National Collegiate Tennis Championships.
* In October, Oliver Maiberger advanced to the quarterfinal round of the ITA All-American Championship, the first leg of the grand slam.
* That same month, Maiberger became the first Aztec player to claim the singles and doubles region championship in the same season.
* In November, the Aztec duo of Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo claimed the school's first grand slam title with a victory in the 2001 Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in Farmers Branch, Texas.
