MALIBU, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Men's Tennis team wrapped up a historic showing in the ITA Southwest Regional Championships this past weekend. Pablo Masjuan earned a trip to the singles championship match while six other Gauchos earned at least one win in singles competition.
 
SINGLES COMPETITION
Pablo Masjuan, the 61st-ranked singles player in the nation and sixth seed in the tournament, made a run of a lifetime in the singles bracket. After an opening-round bye, Masjuan went on to win in straight sets in all his matches leading up to the Championship match. He defeated the No. 125-ranked player, Max McKennon and the No. 22-ranked player, Peter Makk en route to his championship appearance.
 
In the championship match, Masjuan would face Colton Smith from Arizona. Smith is currently ranked No. 23 in the ITA Top-125 singles rankings. Masjuan would fall in straight-sets 6-3, 6-2, and end his tournament as the Singles Runner-Up.
 
Lucca Liu also made an impressive showing, falling just shy of making the quarterfinal round. Liu earned three straight-set victories before falling in the round of 16. After dominating his opponents in the opening two rounds Liu earned a gritty 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over UCLA's Jorge Plans Gonzalez who is ranked No. 107 nationally. In the round of 16 Liu's tournament came to an end as he fell to San Diego's Iiro Vasa. Vasa is the No. 27-ranked player in the nation according to the ITA.
 
The Gauchos had two other student-athletes seeded in the tournament in Gianluca Brunkow and Luka Mrsic each entering the tournament as 17 seeds. Bunkow earned a bye in the opening round while Mrsic earned a straight-set victory over his opponent from Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, Mrsic would end his run in the singles draw in the round of 64 losing in three sets. After his bye in the first round, Brunkow won in straight sets over Niroop Vallabhaneni from USC. In the ensuing round Brunkow would face the No. 99-ranked Herman Hoeyeraal from Arizona. A tough three-set match ultimately ended Brunkow's run falling 1-6, 6-1, 2-6.
 
Pierre Boullenger and Diego Castillo each dropped their opening-round matchup but would earn wins in their back-draw matches on Saturday, Oct. 21. Boullenger defeated Charles Qian from UC San Diego 7-5, 2-6 and 10-4 in the tiebreaking set. Castillo earned a come-from-behind victory over another UC San Diego opponent. He dropped the first set 3-6 before earning a 6-3 and 10-5 set victory to win the match.
 
Conrad Brown earned an opening-round victory with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win. He would fall in the round of 64, but bounced back in his back-draw matchup defeating Colter Smith from Cal Poly in three sets.
 
DOUBLES COMPETITION
Doubles competition was not friendly for the Gauchos as they picked up two wins over five matches. Luka Mrsic and Conrad Brown earned the Gauchos first win with an 8-2 victory over Hawaii's Guillaume Tattevin and Andrew Somerville in the round of 64. Their tournament would end in the following round losing 8-7 (4) in the round of 32.
 
The doubles partnership of Gianluca Brunkow and Pablo Masjuan entered the tournament as the third seed and earned a first-round bye. In the round of 32 the duo would fall 8-4 to Inaki Cabrera-Bello and Gustaf Strom of Arizona. Like Bunkow and Masjuan Lucca Liu and Pierre Boullenger earned an opening round victory before falling in the round of 32.
 
UP NEXT
The Gaucho Men's Tennis team will be back in action on Friday, Nov. 3 as they will participate in the Dennis Rizza JKC Collegiate Championships hosted by USC.