MEN'S TENNIS TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
BOX SCORE
Top-seeded UC Santa Barbara won a record fifth straight Big West Men’s Tournament championship on Sunday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, defeating No. 2 seed Cal Poly by a 4-0 score.
Under head coach Marty Davis, UCSB has won 10 of the 16 tournaments in Indian Wells. It was the program’s 13th tournament title overall – all since 1998. The Gauchos have not lost a match at IWTG since April 25, 2014.
The previous record for consecutive tournaments won also belonged to UCSB. In the dual match format (since 1994), UCSB won four in a row initially from 2006-09 and then again from 2015-18. Now a new standard has been set.
“Pretty happy to win our fifth straight here at Indian Wells,” said head coach Marty Davis. “It’s like our second home. We’ve done so well here in the championships, and I’m super happy for our seniors that won every championship they played in here.”
The Gauchos defeated the Mustangs for the fourth consecutive season in the finals, and extended their winning streak against Big West opponents to 32 straight, counting regular season and tournament contests.
“We’re on a good roll, but we’d really like to take it to the NCAA’s and win a match there and represent this conference well in the NCAA Tournament,” said Davis.
UCSB (16-6) earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of being Big West tourney champion. The Gauchos have won six straight and 10 of their last 11 matches.
The Gauchos went up 1-0 early by capturing the doubles point. Cal Poly won at the No. 2 position, but UCSB countered at No. 1 and No. 3. The duo of Joseph Rotheram and Alex Dominguez Soto clinched the point at No. 3 with a 6-3 win over Roman Shenkiryk and Andrew Whitehouse.
The Gauchos won three straight set matches to finish. Hironogi Koyanagi was a 6-1, 6-3 winner at No. 4 singles over Gary Vardanyan and Joseph Guillin captured a 6-0, 7-5 victory at No. 2 over Antoine Noel.
Sophomore Victor Krustev, ranked No. 115 nationally in singles, slammed the door on the Mustangs with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph at No. 4 against Alex Stater.
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, the 2018 Big West Player of the Year and a member of four straight tournament champion teams at UCSB, reflected on the success of the program.
“It’s incredible - four years running winning the Big West, it’s a dream come true,” said Moreno de Alboran. “We’re all stoked. It’s a collective effort. I’m really happy the team showed up today, competed well and we had good energy.”
Cal Poly ends its season at 14-10.
BIG WEST MEN’S TENNIS FINALS
INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN
SUNDAY, APRIL 28
(1) UC SANTA BARBARA 4, (2) CAL POLY 0
Doubles
1. Moreno de Alboran/Holm (UCSB) def. Ortlip/Bechard (CP) 6-4
2. Noel/Vardanyan (CP) def. Guillin/Krustev (UCSB) 6-4
3. Rotheram/Alex Soto (UCSB) def. Shenkiryk/Andrew Whitehouse (CP) 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles
1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (UCSB) vs. Josh Ortlip (CP) 5-7, 6-2, unf.
2. Joseph Guillin (UCSB) def. Antoine Noel (CP) 6-0, 7-5
3. Victor Krustev (UCSB) def. Alex Stater (CP) 6-2, 6-4
4. Hironori Koyanagi (UCSB) def. Gary Vardanyan (CP) 6-1, 6-3
5. Joseph Rotheram (UCSB) vs. Dominic Bechard (CP) 7-6 (2), 4-2, unf.
6. Anders Holm (UCSB) vs. Roman Shenkiryk (CP) 6-7 (7), 2-1, unf.
Order of finish: 4, 2, 3