USD’s Noriega Wears Rolex Title : Tennis: USD’s Jose Luis Noriega wins his second Collegiate Grand Slam championship, outlasting Rice’s Steve Campbell, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5.

University of San Diego senior Jose Luis Noriega captured the singles title at the Rolex National Indoor Championship, outlasting Rice’s Steve Campbell in three sets Sunday at the Crosstown Racquet Club.

Noriega, the three-time NCAA All-American currently ranked seventh in nation in singles, defeated the man he had practiced with all week, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5. Noriega earned his second Collegiate Grand Slam championship (he won the National Clay Court title in 1989) and improved his record to 30-9 in grand slam competition.

It was his second victory in two matches over Campbell, unseeded in the tournament and ranked 17th in singles. Noriega also beat Campbell, from Detroit, in the final of the 1991 San Diego Intercollegiate Invitational at USD. And before they met again Sunday, the two got reacquainted as they were paired with the same host family and spent much of the week outside of the tournament playing together.

In that time, Noriega, a native of Lima, Peru, got a pretty good read on his opponent.

“He broke me early,” Noriega said. “But I knew it was going to be tough for him to serve for the match with the pressure of a national tournament on the line. I just tried to keep the ball in play and make him hit lots of balls.”

Noriega appeared on the ropes when he was down, 5-3, in the third set after dropping a long second set. But he kept his cool, holding serve in the ninth game and breaking Campbell in the 10th to make it 5-5. Then he took control of the match, serving a love game in the 11th to take a 6-5 advantage.

Said Noriega, “After that game in which I broke him (to even the set), I felt he was discouraged.”

Campbell apparently was, because Noriega then broke him again to win the match. The final was similar to the other four matches he played leading up to the championship. He struggled at times in each match, going three sets each time and dropping the first set in the first four matches.

But Noriega said that made the victory more satisfying. Having been raised on clay courts, he doesn’t consider himself a strong hard-court player.

“You always want to win on the surface that you’re not best on,” he said, “just like Lendl wanting to win so badly at Wimbledon.”

Noriega will play one more Collegiate Grand Slam event, the NCAA Championships hosted by Georgia, in May.

Florida freshman Lisa Raymond won her second Collegiate Grand Slam title of the season Sunday, edging Harvard freshman Erika deLone, 6-3, 6-3, to win the women’s singles.