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THE UCSD GUARDIAN | Thursday, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011 | www.Ucsdguardian.org
UDA CONTACT THE EDITOR RACHEL sports@ucsdguardian.org
SPORTS
UPCOMING
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL 10/5 10/7 MEN’S TENNIS 10/7 10/8 10/9
UCSD
GAMES
VS CSU San Bernardino AT CSU Monterey Bay AT UC Irvine Invitational
Doubles Down For Win By rachel uda • sports editor Photo by nolan thomas • Guardian file
The Triton doubles pair of Austin West and Devon Sousa won the ITA Regionals this weekend, while Triton Max Jiganti took second place in singles.
A
fter defeating the Grand Canyon duo of Stephan Murray and Patrice Giraldi 8-4 in the semifinal bout, the UCSD doubles team of Austin West and Devon Sousa took down the Grand Canyon pairing of Ahmed Saleem and Bastien Tonus 8-2 to win the regional championships at the USTA/Intercollegiate Tennis Association on Saturday, Oct. 1. Three UCSD doubles teams and four singles competitors qualified for the ITA Regionals, beginning the tournament on Wednesday, Sept. 28. In the first round of the tournament, the Triton doubles team of Andrew Malkozsak and Maxence Dutreix were defeated 8-4 by Sonoma’s David Hutton and Greg Eckstadt, while UCSD duo Max Jiganti and Trevor Dell had a stronger showing, beating Sonoma State pair Garret Gooch and Robert Henry 8-1. Jiganti and Dell were met with UCSD opposition in the quarterfinals, dropping the game to West and Sousa 8-5 — the pair that would take the tournament championship after beating Grand Canyon doubles teams in the semifinal and final rounds.
“[West and Sousa] just played well,” assistant coach Timmer Willing said. “We had to play backto-back against two Grand Canyon teams that are very competitive and our guys just physically played really well and were mentally just up and ready for the challenge.” In the singles competition, the Tritons did not fair as well. Seven Tritons qualified for the second round of singles play but were whittled down to four by the quarterfinal round, until only sophomore Max Jiganti stood in the semifinals for UCSD. Jiganti faced off against Grand Canyon’s Ahmed Saleem in a hard-fought three-set battle, winning 6-2, 4-6 and 10-8. In the same day, Jiganti defeated Stephan Murray of Grand Canyon in straight sets, 6-2 and 7-6, to take the semifinal win. In the tournament decider Jiganti faced Brigham Young University-Hawaii’s Yevhen Zakharov, losing in straight sets. “[Jiganti] went down early, but was able to pull out the match against Grand Canyon and did the same thing against BYU in the finals,” said Willing.
See m. tennis, page 11
GAME SUMMARIES
Semifinals
1 6 Murray (Grand Canyon) 2
2 7 6
2 6
4 6
Jiganti (UCSD):
Finals
Jiganti (UCSD) Zakharov (BYU-Hawaii)
Semifinals
West & Sousa (UCSD): Murray & Giraldi (Grand Cayon)
Finals
West & Sousa (UCSD): Saleem & Tonus (Grand Canyon):
1 8 4
8 2
Tritons Go 3-1, Take Home Ninth Place Finish T he No. 12 UCSD men’s water polo team went away with a record 3-1 in this weekend’s SoCal Tournament, hosted by Cal State Long Beach, finishing ninth in the 16-team tournament. The Tritons began the tournament on Saturday against UC Santa Barbara. The No. 8 Gauchos rolled off the first five goals in the match before the Tritons could muster a response. With three minutes remaining, UCSD managed to take two back before the end of the period. At the start of the second the Gauchos scored another two quick goals, but the Tritons put away two more to keep the match within four after the first half. To start the second half, senior Graham Saber scored his fourth goal to bring the Tritons to within three, but it was the closest the Tritons would come, as the Gauchos scored the next two and held control of the game for the remainder of the quarter. Senior Lance Curtiss scored a goal in the final quarter with just over seven minutes remaining, with the game ending 14-8 in favor of the Gauchos.
After dropping its opening match, UCSD fell into the loser’s bracket of the SoCal Tournament. In their second match, the Tritons squared off against Air Force Academy, a team that the Tritons have already defeated 9-4 at home earlier in the year. The Tritons stormed out to a 2-0 lead, but UCSD gave up five of the next six goals and were looking at a 5-3 deficit early in the game. The Tritons managed to dig themselves out of the hole to tie the game at 7-7 at halftime. Air Force took a two-goal lead with a quarter left to play. With the clock winding down, Saber scored. The goal brought the Tritons to within one, as they mounted their comeback. With 50 seconds left junior John Butler scored to tie the match. 50 seconds later, with just five seconds left to play, Saber scored his fourth goal of the quarter to take the game. In the second day of the tournament, the Tritons faced No. 11 Loyola Marymount – a squad that had See m. Water polo, page 11
GAME SUMMARIES Oct. 1, 2011
Oct. 1, 2011 UCSD (NO. 12)
1 2
2 4
3 1
4 Total 2 9
UCsb (no. 8)
6
4
2
3
15
UCSD (NO. 12)
1 5
2 2
3 3
4 Total 2 12
AIR FORCE (no. 20)
3
4
1
3
11
Oct. 2, 2011
Oct. 2, 2011 UCSD (NO. 12)
2
4
1
2
9
UCSD (NO. 12)
3
3
4
1
11
loyola (no. 11)
0
1
1
3
5
UC Davis (no. 9)
4
2
2
2
10
M ichelle jaconette / guardian file
Despite going 3-1 this weekend at the Socal Tournament, the Tritons finished ninth in the sixteen team tournament.