Men's Tennis 2/8/2015 12:00:00 AM

Gauchos Drop Conference Match at UC Irvine, 4-3

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – The Gauchos (2-4 overall, 0-1 in Big West) dropped another 4-3 decision on the road Sunday, losing their first conference match of the season to UC Irvine (3-6 overall, 1-0 in Big West) at the Newport Beach Tennis Club. UCSB won the doubles point but lost four of six singles matches to the Anteaters in their second straight 4-3 loss of the weekend.

The Gauchos came out of the gates strong in the doubles competition with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 courts to capture the doubles point and the 1-0 lead for UCSB. At the No. 1 court, senior Tobias Galskov and sophomore Erik Johnsson put away UCI's Hammel and Pham 6-3. The Gaucho duo of Morgan Mays and Andrew Riminton followed up with a 6-4 victory, defeating Agbayani and Poon at court 3 to clinch the doubles point.

In singles play, UC Irvine tied up the match after one of their star newcomers, Nico Mertens, defeated Tobias Galskov 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 2 court.

Sophomore Teague Hamilton put the Gauchos back in the lead with a 7-6, 7-5 victory against Jonathan Hammel at the No. 5 position for his fourth straight singles win.

After UCSB losses at the No. 4 and No. 1 courts to put UCI up 3-2,the match again came down to junior Andrew Riminton and freshman Cody Rakela. At the No. 6 court, Riminton was up a set but UCI's Rafael Davidian battled back to win the next two sets and capture the win for the Anteaters.

Though UC Irvine already clinched the match, Cody Rakela and Tyler Pham played out the rest of their match at court 3 and had an exciting finish as Rakela took the decisive third set tiebreak 13-11 to make the final score 4-3.

The Gauchos will next be in action on Saturday, February 14th, when they host the Loyola Marymount Lions at the Rec Cen Courts beginning at 1 pm.

UC Irvine 4, UC Santa Barbara 3
February 8, 2015
Newport Beach Tennis Club (Newport Beach, Calif.)

Doubles

1. Galskov/Johnsson (UCSB) def. Hammel/Pham (UCI) 6-3
2. Agbayani/Poon (UCI) vs. Eshmade/Masciorini (UCSB) 5-4, unfinished
3. Mays/Riminton (UCSB) def. Mertens/Shibahara (UCI) 6-4

Singles

1. Sebastian Heim (UCI) def. Morgan Mays (UCSB) 6-4, 7-5
2. Nico Mertens (UCI) def. Tobias Galskov (UCSB) 7-5, 6-3
3. Cody Rakela (UCSB) def. Tyler Pham (UCI) 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 (11)
4. Shuhei Shibahara (UCI) def. Nathan Eshmade (UCSB) 7-5, 6-4
5. Teague Hamilton (UCSB) def. Jonathan Hammel (UCI) 7-6, 7-5
6. Rafael Davidian (UCI) def. Andrew Riminton (UCSB) 6-7, 6-2, 6-3