View and download the entire issue of ATR 66 – January 2019 Vol 20 No 2A
Alabama, USC, Yale Among Foes;
Coaches Schedule 34 Home Matches
San Diego State’s men’s and women’s tennis teams open the 2019 season with a joint doubleheader at home on January 20.
The Aztec women face Sacramento State, the men meet UC Santa Barbara. Both matches start at noon at the Aztec Tennis Center.
This season marks the 97th year since a men’s tennis club was formed at San Diego State College in 1922.
Aztec women’s coach Peter Mattera and men’s coach Gene Carswell have booked 34 home matches.
The SDSU men face Alabama’s Crimson Tide, coached by Aztec alumnus George Husack, at 3 p.m. on Feb. 3. The SDSU women meet Yale at 2 p.m. on March 19. Full schedules are online at goaztecs.com.
ATR photo: Aesha Patel of India 
ATR photo: Ellie Ashley of Australia
The 2019 Aztec rosters draw students from nearly every corner of the globe. They are among the most geographically diverse Aztec teams in decades (see “How Coaches Assembled Aztecs from Across the Globe“).
By mid-December, 20 players from 10 nations, including the U.S., were due to play.
Their homelands ranged from Argentina to Australia to India to Uzbekistan.
The Aztec men are Sander Gjoles-Andersen of Denmark, Rafael Gonzalez Almazan of Spain, David Hough of Australia, Jan Kirchhof of Germany, Ignacio Martinez of Weston, FL, Nicholas Mitchell of Ojai, CA, Arnaud Restifo of France, Fabian Roensdorf of Germany, and Gavin Spencer of San Juan Capistrano, CA.
The Aztec women are Lauren Anderson of Camarillo, CA, Ellie Ashley of Australia, Magda Aubets of Spain, Shakhnoza Khatamova of Uzbekistan, Alicia Melosch of Germany, Jenny Moinard of France, Abbie Mulbarger of Woodbridge, CA, Nnena Nadozie of Los Angeles, Aesha Patel of India, Agustina Rimoldi Godoy of Argentina, and Mia Smith of Great Britain.
“We’ve got a very deep team,” said Coach Mattera. “The new people are really going to make us better at everything that we do both in singles and doubles.
“Not only are they playing good tennis,” he said, “but they’ve done a good job of representing the university which…is very important.”
Among the women’s home opponents are Yale, Cal Berkeley, Arizona State, and Quinnipiac, from Connecticut. They face perennial powerhouse USC on the road.
On the men’s team, the roster includes only one senior, Gjoles-Andersen, a top competitor.
“The great thing that we have going for us as we move forward,” said Coach Carswell, “is, we’ve got a group of guys that really overcame some adversity last year.”
One hurdle was a heavy travel schedule, a difficult experience for newcomers joining the team.
One bright spot in a losing season was an upset victory over third-seeded New Mexico in the Mountain West Championships.
“That showed that we’re a team that was really going in the right direction,” Carswell said.
“We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position to, I feel like, compete for the conference championship.”