The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (10-7) extended their win streak to five straight matches while staying perfect in the Big West as they defeated Hawaii (7-6) by a score of 5-2.
The day started off with Hawaii taking two of the three doubles matches to secure the point. The lone winning Gaucho duo consisted of Jaimee Gilbertson and Stacy Yam, who won handily 8-1.
Singles, once again, came down to the very end as the Gauchos were in for a battle.
Natalie Da Silveira continued her on-court dominance as she defeated Viktoria Malova 6-1, 6-3.
Gilbertson was next off, however allergies appeared to hinder the sophomore and she fell 2-6, 2-6 to Hawaii’s Cindy Nguyen.
Melissa Baker found her groove and found it early as she tied up the score for the Gauchos, defeating Martina Kostalova by a score of 6-2, 6-2.
Luisa Ortiz Candido fell early, down 2-5 in the first set, but behind her screaming teammates was able to battle her way back winning eleven straight games to win her match 7-5, 6-0.
The Gauchos led 3-2 with Yam and April Scatliffe battling in their third sets.
Yam fell 1-6 in the first set, but never gave up. She battled back in the second set to win 6-4. With her teammates by her side, encouraging her the entire way, Yam got a break to lead 3-0 and then another big break to win the third set and clinch the match for the Gauchos by a score of 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
“In the first set I was barely losing each close game because I was going for my shots just a little too soon and not being patient enough,” Yam said after her match. “Then I started being a little more patient and waiting for the right balls to dominate. I made sure to hit out on my shots, be loose, and really take control of the points.”
Head coach Simon Thibodeau was very proud of Yam’s clutch effort.
“Stacy’s performance was gutsy. It’s always great to see a player win, especially when they display courage and offense under pressure as she did,” he said.
Scatliffe’s match was ended after Yam clinched for the Gauchos because her opponent retired, but she was in a tight third set. Scatliffe won the first set 6-4, and her opponent, Paulina Petriskova, won the second 6-2. The third was tied at 5-5 when Petriskova retired.
The Gauchos improve to 3-0 in the Big West conference with five of the next six matches being confrence matches.
“Hawaii has a very good team this year, so taking them down is a huge confidence booster for us,” assistant coach Erica Cano said. “We’re riding some good momentum on two really good wins, so we’ll take that into USF and the rest of the conference matches we have left.”
Before their next Big West match, the Gauchos take to the road as they face off against the University of San Francisco at Pebble Beach on Mar 29.
