The No. 53 UC Santa Barbara men’s tennis team beat UC San Diego 7-0 Saturday afternoon at the Arnhold Tennis Center. The Gauchos’ (12-5, 1-1) shutout earned them their first Big West win of the season and was their sixth win in their last seven matches.
Santa Barbara took the doubles point with wins on courts one and two as head coach Blake Muller experimented with new doubles pairings. Phillip Jordan and Victor Krustev beat Zach Ermert and Eric Silberman 6-2 on court one, and Kai Brady and Pablo Masjuan took down Daniel Traxler and William Lan 6-3 on court two to clinch the doubles point.
UCSB won all six singles matchups. First to wrap up his win was Gianluca Brunkow, who beat Sanjith Devineni 6-1, 6-1 on court two, and Jordan prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over Traxler on court one, making it 3-0 in favor of Santa Barbara.
On court three, Krustev earned the Gauchos’ match-clinching fourth point with a 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Ermert.
UCSB continued to pile it on after the clinching point, as Masjuan beat Phillip Lan 6-3, 6-2 on court two and Brady got the best of Pelayo Rodriguez on court four, winning 7-5, 7-5.
Alejandro Vedri wrapped things up, earning Santa Barbara’s seventh and final point with his 7-5, 6-4 win over Jett Cole on court five.
The Gauchos host UC Davis in their penultimate home match on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Daniel Messinger writes about sports for UCSB.
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