Athletics Roundup: Tennis Teams on Major Win Streaks; Baseball, Softball, Golf, Swimming, Track

The USD women's tennis team, which is ranked 37th in the nation, earned its seventh consecutive victory, edging visiting Yale, 4-3, in a nonconference match March 16 at USD's Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.

The match came down to the No. 6 singles battle between USD's Maria Tyrina and Yale's Kathy Wang. Tyrina came away with a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (9), 6-3 victory to seal the Toreros' win and improve their overall record to 9-2.

USD started with a doubles victory by the teams of Solymar Colling-Maria-Paula Torres and Gemma Garcia-Kati Kukaras for the 1-0 edge.

But Yale won singles matches at the fifth and first positions for a 2-1 lead. USD regained the lead on wins by No. 2 Daniela Morales and No. 4 Kukaras for a 3-2 advantage. Yale tied it with a singles win at No. 3 position, leaving it up to Tyrina to give USD the hard-fought victory.

Next Matches: USD hosts Portland, Friday, 1:30 p.m., Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center; USD hosts Gonzaga, Sunday, 1 p.m., Hogan Tennis Center.

Men’s Tennis

The USD men's tennis team, ranked 30th in the nation, captured its fifth straight victory and made a little sweeter in that it was a 4-0 road win March 16 over crosstown rival San Diego State.

USD (11-3) won the doubles point on wins by the teams of August Holmgren-Joel Gamerov at No. 3 doubles and the top team of Gui Osorio-Nick Borter.

The 1-0 lead manifested itself as the Toreros claimed singles wins by Osorio at No. 2 position, Borter at the third spot and David Norfeldt, playing at No. 5 position, clinched the match.

The match was USD's lone one of the week, but later this week they'll be hosting the Spring Invitational with matches at the Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.

Next Matches: USD co-hosts Spring Invitational Tournament (teams TBA), Friday-Saturday-Sunday, Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center.

Baseball

The USD baseball team brought a winning attitude, both on the field and courtesy of their first national ranking of the season by Collegiate Baseball, into its West Coast Conference opening weekend series at home against defending conference champion Pepperdine.

After a 9-6 home win over No. 21 TCU on March 12, USD won the WCC opener 5-1 on March 15 to earn its sixth straight victory and start the weekend with a great feeling. Trouble is, USD fell 8-7 March 16 as a ninth-inning rally from an 8-5 deficit ended just short and then Pepperdine closed out the series March 17 with a 10-5 win over the Toreros.

USD fell to 14-6 overall and is now 1-2 in WCC play.

Highlights from the weekend series were: Cody Jefferis hit his first collegiate home run and finished 2-for-4 with a double and the homer in Friday's win. Starting pitcher Chris Murphy gave up Pepperdine's lone run in the first inning, but settled down and went six innings, allowing only three hits and striking out six. Jake Miller pitched the final three innings to earn a save; On Saturday, trailing 8-5 in the ninth, Ripken Reyes and Shane McGuire each singled and Caleb Ricketts singled to score Reyes. A wild pitch moved the runners up and Adam Kerner, who earlier in the game hit a two-run homer, reached base on a fielding error to score McGuire and cut the lead to 8-7 with two outs. A popup to second base ended the game; On Sunday, McGuire hit a three-run homer in the first inning, but Pepperdine's offense got going soon after that and led 10-3 in the fourth inning.

Next Games: USD hosts Cal State Fullerton, Tuesday, 6 p.m., Fowler Park; USD hosts San Francisco, Friday-Saturday-Sunday, 6 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 1 p.m., Fowler Park.

Softball

The USD softball team took two of three games in a nonconference weekend series against Cal State Bakersfield at the USD Softball Complex. The Toreros swept a doubleheader on March 16, but lost 4-3 in 11 innings on March 17.

Both wins Saturday came on walk-off singles by Sara Silveyra.

In the first game, USD scored twice in the seventh inning, getting a bases-loaded RBI single by Shelbi Evans to tie the game at 2 and then Silveyra's line drive to the right-center field gap to win it. Delaney Heller tossed a complete game -- her fifth this season -- and allowed three hits and struck out three to improve her record to 6-4.

In the second game Saturday, both teams scored their runs in the first inning for a 2-2 deadlock until the seventh inning. Silveyra drove in Taylor Spence with a hit to right field. Spence had singled, advanced to second on a throwing error and then went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Evans. Halle Kyler got the start in the pitching circle, but Madison Earnshaw came on in relief and struck out six and allowed only one hit in five innings of relief to get credit for the win. Earnshaw is now 4-6 on the season.

On Sunday, the visiting Roadrunners scored the winning run in the top of the 11th inning on one of four Torero errors in the game. Earnshaw pitched 10 innings, allowing eight hits before Heller pitched the decisive 11th inning. Offensively, USD had 11 hits, but stranded 13 runners overall, including two each in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings. Evans, Lindsay Clare, Hailey Freeman and Rion Simms each had two hits for USD (11-15).

Next Games: USD hosts UC Santa Barbara, Saturday (doubleheader), noon and 2 p.m.; USD Softball Complex; USD hosts UC Santa Barbara, Sunday, noon.

Women’s Swimming

Kailyn Evans won the 100-yard individual medley and registered three top-five finishes to highlight San Diego's weekend at the NIC Championships hosted by Cleveland (Ohio) State.
 
Evans set a meet record in the 100 IM with a time of 55.11 to finish first. She also registered a fourth-place finish in the 200 individual medley (2:00.21) and a fifth-place result in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.77).

Evans also contributed to the Toreros relay efforts along with teammates Hannah Hudson, Haley Ohlson and Alexa Philips. The quartet recorded 18th-place finishes in the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay with times of 1:34.85 and 3:26.40, respectively.
 
USD placed 26th in the 200 medley relay (1:45.83) and 27th in the 400 medley relay (3:50.62).
 
The Toreros finished 28th overall among the 48-team field with 73 points.

Golf

The men’s golf team finished in 15th place out of 15 teams entered in the March 11-12 Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic at the San Diego Country Club, but one player, senior George Gardner, earned a Top-20 finish.

Gardner shot a 71 in the final round, following rounds of 72 and 74, to end up with a 1-over-par total of 217. Yash Majmudar was second among Torero golfers with a 10-over 226 (75-78-73).

Team wise, USD shot 916 (52-over-par) for the three-round tournament. Team scores were 311, 306 and 299).

Next Tournament: USD at the NIT, Today and Tuesday, Tucson National Golf Club, Tucson, Ariz.

Women’s Track

Hannah Rasmussen earned a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter race to highlight San Diego's season-opening meet at the Ross and Sharon Irwin Collegiate hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University.
 
Rasmussen clocked in at 17 minutes, 28.08 seconds to earn the runner-up result. She was one of 15 Toreros who earned top-20 finishes on the day.
 
USD finished eighth among the 14-team field with 57 points.
 
Along with Rasmussen's second-place finish, Madison Lambros (sixth, 17:53.31) and Zani Moore (seventh, 17:54.52) also registered top-10 finishes.
 
Natalie North-Cole earned a fourth-place finish in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 11:43.25. Jessica Ong and Kate Koehler finished sixth (2:18.30) and ninth (2:21.37) in the 800, respectively. Cammy Manes led USD in the 1,500 with a time of 4:47.41 to place 10th. Koehler, Ong, Sera Parvin and Manes then combined for a time of 4:09.49 in the 4x400 meters relay to place eighth.

Next Meet: USD at San Diego State Aztecs Open and Invitational, Friday.

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