LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Senior Jan Meyer's collegiate career came full circle Friday evening when he returned to the courts at UC San Diego where he claimed his first career victory to lead Azusa Pacific men's tennis to a 6-3 victory over the Tritons with the clinching victory at No. 1 singles.
Match Results
As a freshman, Meyer made his debut at the courts in La Jolla, where he defeated Rajeev Herekar 6-2, 7-6(5)to lead the Cougars to a 7-2 victory. Playing No. 1 singles on Friday against Eric Tseng more than three years later wasn't much different with the now No. 2 player in the nation winning 6-1, 7-6(5).
The win boosts West Region No. 3 Azusa Pacific's winning record to nine matches, and gives the Cougars a season split with No. 2 UC San Diego. It also puts the Cougars in great position for one of the three playoff spots in the West Region as the Cougars now boast at least one win against every team in the top eight of the region except national No. 1 Hawai`i Pacific, which is undefeated.
The Cougars got a fast start in doubles with an 8-4 win from Shepherd Newcomb and Christian Schmid, who never trailed before Schmid served out the victory for the Cougars' first point. However, the Tritons quickly evened the score coming back from a break down to win 8-6 at No. 1 doubles against Meyer and Olger van Gent who were fresh off upsetting the No. 2 doubles team in the region the day before.
The tie was broken heading into singles by Pascal Engel and Alan Leahy, who bounced back from their first loss of the season as a pair the day before with an 8-4 victory. The Cougar tandem is now 13-6 in their career as a team.
UC San Diego got the first singles win at No. 5 to tie the score and nearly took a 3-2 lead with Alex Miaule leading Alan Leahy 6-2, 5-0. However, Leahy won four games in a row to extend the match at No. 3 singles.
Meanwhile, Schmid won 6-2, 6-2 to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead before Maiule eventually ended up winning 6-2, 6-4 to tie the match again with Azusa Pacific ahead by a set on each of the remaining courts.
Engel, who clinched the Cougars' 5-4 victory at UC San Diego in 2015, didn't need as much time to win his singles match this time around, finishing with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph at No. 5 singles, giving Meyer a chance to not only serve for his own singles match, but the overall team victory.
However, Tseng, who clinched the Tritons' 5-4 victory under the lights at Citrus College earlier in the season, broke Meyer to keep the UC San Diego hopes alive. Both Tseng and Meyer then held serve to send the second set into a tiebreaker.
Meyer grabbed the early lead in the tiebreaker, going ahead 3-0 with one minibreak, but Tseng won both points on his serve and then got the minibreak back to even the score at 3-3 going into the change of ends. The Cougar No. 1 then won three of the next four points to earn two match points for the overall victory, and on the second match point, a Tseng backhand cross court went wide to give Azusa Pacific a season split with UC San Diego.
"Every time we come to UC San Diego, the matches are incredible," Engel said. "We have had such a strong rivalry with them for the last couple years and we all know there is so much at stake when we play against them. The atmosphere here is amazing."
Newcomb then concluded the Cougar victory with a win at No. 6 singles. After winning the first set in a long tiebreak set, the match was moved to another court with lights, where Newcomb won the second set for a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory.
Next Friday, Azusa Pacific hosts Concordia in the regular season home finale. The Cougars defeated the Eagles 7-2 in February.
