In the first day of action at the UCSB Classic, the UC Santa Barbara Men’s Tennis team looked poised to keep the trophy in town as they won seven singles matches to go along with three doubles victories.
The tournament began with doubles play, where one Gaucho team would prevail in each flight and head to the Semi-Finals. The team of Co-Captain Morgan Mays and Andrew Riminton would capture the first win for the Gauchos playing on the stadium court in Flight A. Mays and Riminton got out to an early lead over Billy Griffith and JT Nishimura from Cal, but were forced to battle to a 8-6 victory.
In Flight B Nathan Eshmade paired up with one of Santa Barbara’s newest members in freshman Nicolas Moreno de Alboran. Together, they dominated the match winning 8-2 over Brandon Sutter and Roy Lederman. The team of Miles Seemann and Oliver Sec faltered in their first battle, losing 8-4 in the same flight.
The young duo of Chase Masciorini and Riley Scott put together an 8-4 victory over Gunther Matta and Jordan Smith of the Golden Bears in Flight C. Teague Hamilton and Anders Holm took a loss in the first round, but due to a bye, will play in the Consolation Finals on Sunday.
On the singles side, three Gauchos that were featured in Flight A advanced to the Quarter Finals of the tournament. Both Mays and Cody Rakela posted straight set wins going 6-2, 6-1, and 6-3, 7-6, respectively. Oliver Sec battled his way to his first collegiate victory dropping the first set and then forcing a third and winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
Tomorrow, Mays will face the tournament’s number one seed in No. 67 Daan Maasland of Oregon.
In Flight B, again a group of three Gauchos would prevail, as Santa Barbara went 3-0 in the first day of this bracket. Masciorini fell in his first set 4-6 with Wyatt Houghton, but was able to bounce back winning the second 6-3. In a heated third, the sophomore gutted out a 7-6 (5) victory to push on towards the next round. Eshmade and Riminton added easy sweeps to their record winning 6-3, 6-2, and 6-4, 6-1, respectively.
Santa Barbara struggled in Flight C, but was able to pull off a victory and keep one Gaucho in the hunt of the Championship, as freshman Holm pulled out a three set victory of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Tomorrow’s events are set to start at 9am with doubles play, followed by two singles matches for every player.
