SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The top-seeded UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team beat No. 4 Hawaii 4-1 to advance to the Big West Championship and avenge their single conference loss this season. The regular season champion Gauchos (17-5, 5-1) will face No. 3 UC Irvine in the championship match who they shutout 4-0 on Apr. 10.
How it Happened
- UCSB cruised to two doubles win to clinch the first point. On court one, Phillip Jordan and Kai Brady beat Andre Ilagan and Karl Collins 6-2 and on court two, Pablo Masjuan and Victor Krustev also won 6-2 over Blaz Seric and Axel Labrunie
- Moving onto singles, Brady added a second point for the Gauchos when he finished off a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Collins
- Kilian Maitre made things interesting with a 0-6, 6-3, 6-1 comeback win over Gianluca Brunkow, bringing the Rainbow Warriors within a point
- Masjuan made sure Hawaii didn't get any closer, extending the lead to 3-1 as he defeated Labrunie 6-3, 6-4 and put Santa Barbara on the brink of clinching the win
- Jordan finished things off, earning a thrilling three set win over Ilagan. After winning the first set and dropping the second, the RS sophomore trailed 4-5 in the third set. Jordan went on to win the final three games to complete the 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win and send the Gauchos to the championship
Next Up
UCSB looks to earn its seventh consecutive Big West title when they take on UC Irvine tomorrow at the Barnes Tennis Center. Live stats can be found here. Click here for more info about the Big West Championships.
