On a night where three sets went to tiebreaks, the San Diego Aviators saved some of their best tennis for the tense and tightest moments to defeat the New York Empire, 24-18 in front of the home crowd at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa.
Daniel Nguyen, substituting in for Olympian Guido Pella for New York, began the night taking on San Diego’s Ryan Harrison, looking to win his third straight men’s singles set. After Patrick McEnroe called an early GEICO Timeout in the second game, where the Stanford grad gave advice to a USC Trojan, Nguyen found a winning strategy -- one volley winner and another big serve closed out the game for 1-1. With that first game out of the way, Nguyen loosened up and began hitting with length and depth while dominating at the net, closing out the break of serve with a smash winner.