Andy McGuire goes airborne to keep the ball alive for partner Jeremy Casebeer. (Presidio Sports Photo)
Battling the fading light and an energized opponent, Hawk Hatcher and Parker Kalmbach came back from a set down in the day’s final match to win the Santa Barbara CBVA Open on Sunday.
Hatcher and Kalmbach defeated Matt Motter and Matt Olson 18-21, 21-13, 15-12 for the championship. The duo never lost in the double-elimination tournament.
“We just focused more. We played our game better,” said Kalmbach, who has just recently begun playing with Hatcher.
Hawk Hatcher keeps the ball off the sand on Sunday.
The chemistry worked from the start as the two won their first tournament together, a CBVA victory in Ocean Beach on May 15. Since then they took a trip to Europe before coming home for their second CBVA tournament win.
Hatcher and Kalmbach defeated defending champion Will Montgomery and his partner Avery Drost along the way. Montgomery and Drost, who triumphed in Hermosa Beach on May 22, were the highest rated team coming into the event and finished in third place.
“We played in Hermosa earlier this year, and we won that battle and they got us back this time,” Montgomery said of the Santa Barbara champs.
Montgomery and Drost were undefeated up until their last two matches. Motter and Olson ended their day with a 21-17, 22-20 decision. Their first loss was a hard-fought 21-19, 27-25 loss to Hatcher and Kalmbach.
“We played well. We just got kind of outplayed by these last two teams,” Montgomery said. “They played a little better than we did so you got to give it to them.”
The other defending champion, Jeremy Casebeer, played with Andy McGuire, who was on UCSB’s 2011 indoor team that reached the NCAA final and won the Santa Barbara CBVA Open with Joey Dykstra that same year.
Casebeer and McGuire finished fourth and had to withdraw from their final match after they both developed blisters from the hot sand. Sunday wasn’t as hot as Saturday’s women’s tournament, but excessive heat warnings from the national weather service were still in effect.
“It was hotter than we expected, didn’t wear socks,” McGuire explained. “Both of us had pretty fat blisters during our last match there. Couldn’t really walk.”
Casebeer, a former UCLA player, played with McGuire at this tournament back in 2008.
“We brought the band back together and it was fun. He played really well; he’s super athletic,” McGuire said.
