LOS ANGELES - The UC San Diego men's tennis team matched up against Division I competition in qualifying rounds of the 53rd Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships Wednesday and both Jake Fellow and Alex Placek picked up victories.

After losing the first set 2-6 to UC Santa Barbara's Josh Finkelstein, Fellow rallied to win the second 6-2 and then captured the tiebreaker victory 10-4. Last season Finkelstein played mostly at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions for the Gauchos and recorded an overall record of 18-5. Advancing to the round of 32 with the win against Finkelstein, Fellow then fell to Alex Brigham of UCLA, 6-2, 6-2.

"Jake really came on well there," Tritons' head coach Eric Steidlmayer. "He played tough and it was a good match. Both players he faced today are very strong."

Placek, after moving into the round of 32 because of his first opponent withdrawing from the tournament, knocked off Loyola Marymount's Nick Vonderahe easily 6-2, 6-1. Vonderahe went 6-5 overall last season, playing out of the No. 5 and No. 6 positions for the Lions. In the main draw Friday, Placek will challenge Charl Wolmarans of the University of San Diego at 11:30 a.m. Wolmarans tallied an 8-11 overall record this past spring with the Toreros.

Based on previous standing, UCSD junior Erik Elliott earned an automatic berth into the main draw and will play Stephen Stege of UC Irvine at 11:30 a.m. Friday. Stege went 12-12 last season.

Also on Thursday, Sam Ling lost to LMU's Otto Sauer, 6-1, 6-0, Vincent Nguyen was topped by the Lions' Borja Malet, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3) and Austin West was defeated by UCLA's Ahmed Ismail, 6-4, 6-0.

Along with main draw matches for Elliott and Placek and consolation contests for Ling, Nguyen, Fellow and West, the Tritons' Friday schedule also includes first-round doubles play at 4 p.m.