No. 3 Seed UC Irvine, No. 1 Seed UC Santa Barbara 2

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SAN DIEGO -- No. 3 seed UC Irvine upset top-seeded UC Santa Barbara 4-2 in come from behind fashion to win the 2022 Big West Men’s Tennis Championship, Sunday at Barnes Tennis Center.
 
The Anteaters (17-6) win their fourth Big West title, the first since 2011 and earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. UC Irvine snapped the Gauchos streak of six straight titles from 2015-21 (Big West Championship not held in 2020 due to COVID pandemic). UC Santa Barbara will learn its fate on whether they make the national tournament with the NCAA Men’s Tennis Selection Show on NCAA.com, Monday, May 2 at 3 p.m. PT.
 
The championship matchup started with UC Santa Barbara taking the doubles point. The Gaucho pair of Stefano Tsorotiotis and Gianluca Brunkow downed Lawee Sherif and Ali Amiri 6-3 in the third line. Riccardo Roberto and Matthew Sah of UC Irvine topped Pablo Masjuan and Victor Krustev 6-1 in the two hole, to even the doubles score. In the top flight, Phillip Jordan and Kai Brady bested Emmanuel Coste and Noah Zamora 6-4 to clinch the point for UC Santa Barbara.
 
The Gauchos took a 2-0 lead with Brunkow taking down Sherif 6-4, 6-4 in the five spot. UC Irvine cut the margin to one, with Rithvik Krishna taking Pierre Boullenger in two sets 6-4, 6-4 in the sixth line, and evened the team score with Mike Mkrtchian defeated Kai Brady in three sets including a tiebreaker, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7-4) in the matchup of fours.
 
The final two singles matches that finished went to the Anteaters. Zamora defeated Krustev in three sets including a tie breaker 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4) in the two hole. Coste clinched the title for UC Irvine with a three set win over Phillip Jordan 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the top flight.