Athletics Roundup: Three Tennis Players Earn All-America Status in NCAA Tournament

The finishing touches on University of San Diego Athletics ' 2018-19 season came courtesy of athletes playing for two of the Toreros’  strongest spring sports teams — men and women's tennis — in NCAA competition at the USTA National Campus facility in Orlando, Fla., last week.

Freshman women’s tennis standout Solymar Colling and the men’s tennis doubles team of Joel Gamerov, junior, and sophomore August Holmgren both won a pair of matches in the NCAA Individuals Tournament last week and, as a result, they earned All-American status.

Colling won two matches in the 64-player field before succumbing 6-3, 6-3 to North Carolina’s Sara Daavettila in an NCAA quarterfinal round match on May 23. Colling reached her third match in three days following impressive wins over Louisiana State University’s Eden Richardson, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in the first round and a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Northwestern University’s Clarissa Hand on May 21.

Despite her Round of 16 defeat, Colling has plenty to be proud of for a debut season in which she earned All-America honors, was the WCC Freshman of the Year, an All-WCC first team selection, and became the first Torero to compete in the NCAA Championships singles tournament since 2006. She’s the first Torero women’s tennis player to earn All-America honors since 2000 when Zuzana Lesenarova did it for the fourth and final time (1997-2000). The program has accumulated 13 All-America honors all-time.

Colling finishes the year with a 27-8 overall singles record. She helped lead the Toreros to their first NCAA Tournament team appearance since 2012. She played every singles and doubles match this year at the No. 1 position and racked up a 15-5 dual match record in singles. She went 7-1 against WCC opponents.

Gamerov and Holmgren, a solid duo all season long for the West Coast Conference regular-season and WCC Tournament champion Toreros, opened play in the 32-team field May 21 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Notre Dame’s Richard Ciamarra and Tristan McCormick. The next day, Gamerov-Holmgren outlasted Texas A&M’s Juan Aguilar and Barnaby Smith 7-6, 3-6 and 14-12 in the deciding set. The season came to a close in the May 23 quarterfinal round, falling 7-6, 6-3 to UCLA’s Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith, the No. 2 seed in the tournament bracket.

The USD duo finishes the season with a 20-8 overall record. It is the second consecutive year Holmgren and Gamerov have reached at least 20 wins in doubles in a single season.

On May 20, USD men’s singles standout and WCC Player of the Year, junior Gui Osorio, lost a first-round NCAA match in three sets to Baylor’s Maitas Soto, 5-7, 7-5, 6-0. Osorio completed his season with a 27-7 overall singles record, 21-3 in dual-match play and 9-0 against WCC opponents.

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