UC Santa Barbara men’s tennis concluded play at the UCSB Classic on Sunday morning with a perfect 3-0 day at B Flight singles including a first place finish by freshman Cody Rakela as well as third place finishes in A Flight singles and B Flight doubles.
Freshman Cody Rakela capped his strong UCSB debut with a victory in the B Flight singles final, defeating Bryce McKelvie of UC Davis in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. Fellow Gaucho teammates Erik Johnsson and Nathan Eshmade captured 3rd and 5th places finishes, respectively, in the B Flight draw. Johnsson beat his opponent from UC Davis, Brett Bacharach, 6-4, 6-2 and Eshmade overpowered UCSD’s Eric Tseng 6-0, 6-1.
Eshmade and Johnsson also had a good day in doubles play, as the pairing defeated GCU’s Kuehnen and Legarreta 8-4 for third place in the B Flight doubles draw.
At Flight A singles, senior Tobias Galskov topped JT Nishimura from Cal in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 to finish in third place.
Galskov and doubles partner Ziad Sultan fell just short in their bid for a first place title in the top doubles draw as they dropped their match against Cal’s Nishimura/Melton 8-3.
Sophomores Teague Hamilton and Morgan Mays were edged 8-6 in their B Flight doubles match for 7th place against UCR’s Bridge/Carella. Hamilton and Mays also dropped two tough matches in A Flight singles. Hamilton lost the final two sets of his match after racing out to a 6-1 first set victory and Mays was defeated by Fresno State’s Adam Glynn 7-5, 6-3 in his match for 5th place.
The winner of the tournament was Cal’s Mads Engsted, who pulled through in a three set battle against his teammate Hasier Pastor 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 in A Flight singles.
The Gauchos will continue their fall tournament schedule at the ITA Regionals beginning on Friday, Oct. 17 in Malibu.
