The 56th-ranked UC Santa Barbara women’s tennis team split a pair of matches on Friday afternoon…sort of.
On Thursday afternoon, the Gauchos battled Furman University to a 3-3 tie through the six singles matches and then the rains came and the doubles were pushed to Friday at noon.
The Paladins win the doubles point, claiming the No. 1 and No. 3 matches, to post a 4-3 win over UCSB.
In the match against Furman, the Gauchos were led by Kiersten Meehan who swept past Katherine Oudin at No. 2 singles. In addition, Meehan and her doubles partner, April Scatliffe, were up 6-3 when their No. 2 doubles contest was called after the other two were decided.
At. No. 3 singles, Paola Cos swept Alex Moreno-Kaste in a tough one, 7-6 (9), 7-5, while Erica Cano claimed a 6-3, 6-3 sweep over Kelly Sullivan at No. 6.
In today’s regularly scheduled match, UCSB bounced back with a 5-2 win over Eastern Michigan.
The Gauchos claimed the doubles point with wins at No. 1 (Cano and Priscilla Garcia def. Nino Mebuke and Klara Supejova, 8-4) and No. 3 (Cos and Stacy Yam def. Ankita Bhatia and Zsofia Biro, 8-2).
Santa Barbara also recorded four singles victories. At No. 1, Scatliffe knocked-off Mebuke, 6-4, 6-1. Meehan had a tougher time at No. 2, but she was able to rebound form a first set loss to defeat Supejova, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. Cos swept Daphne Friedrichs at No. 3, 6-3, 6-4, and Yam topped Mariya Toncheva at No. 5, 6-2, 6-2.
“I liked our level of play against Eastern Michigan,” said UCSB head coach Simon Thibodeau. “That was a nice win after along day. I am looking forward to our Big West match against Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.”
The Gauchos, 9-4, will host the Titans at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
