2026 All-Big West Men’s Tennis Team and Awards
The Big West is proud to announce its 2026 men’s tennis awards, five days after the conclusion of the 2026 Big West Men’s Tennis Championship. The All-Big West teams and awards were voted on by the league's seven head coaches.

After tabulating the votes, The Big West Player of the Year went to UC Irvine’s Hiroki Sakagawa. It is the second straight year and 11th time overall that an Anteater has won the league’s top honor. Sakagawa went 14-3 overall, all at the top flight, and an undefeated 5-0 in conference play. The Anteater graduate student-athlete was not only an All-Big West First Team selection as a singles player, but also a Second Team honoree as a doubles pair with teammate Tal Goodman, going 7-4 overall and 2-2 in Big West action, all at the No. 2 spot.

Jovan Lubbe of Cal Poly earned the honor of The Big West Freshman of the Year. It is the sixth time that a Mustang has claimed the league’s first-year award. The Cal Poly rookie went 13-8 overall, 11-7 at No. 1 and 2-1 at No. 2, going 5-1 in league action. Lubbe was placed on the All-Big West First Team as a singles player and on the second team as a doubles pair with Leo Matthysen. The duo carried a 2-5 overall record, all at the top spot, and went 1-1 in league play.

UC Santa Barbara head coach Blake Muller was tabbed by peers as The Big West Coach of the Year. It is the second time overall that Muller has been bestowed the league’s yearly coaching honor. The fifth-year head coach guided the Gauchos to an 18-7 overall record and a share of the conference’s regular-season crown, going 5-1 in conference play. UC Santa Barbara won the 2026 Big West Men’s Tennis Championship as the No. 1 seed, defeating No. 5 seed UC Davis 4-2 in the semifinals and No. 2 seed UC Irvine 4-0 in the title match. The Gauchos are ranked No. 35 in the latest ITA rankings released on April 30. UC Santa Barbara will represent The Big West in the upcoming NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship with a first-round matchup at San Diego on Friday, May 1 at 1 p.m.

Singles players on the All-Big West First Team are Lubbe, Sakagawa, UC Davis’ Lucas Bollinger (13-6, 2-3 BW) and Kaveh Taheri (13-6, 3-2 BW), UC Santa Barbara’s Lucca Liu (12-4, 2-2 BW) and Dominique Rolland (11-7, 2-1 BW), and Azuma Visaya of Hawai‘i (9-8, 2-2 BW). The doubles pairing on the All-Big West first team features Liu and Miguel Avendano of UC Santa Barbara (14-6, 4-0 BW), UC San Diego’s Abhinav Chunduru and Trevor Nguyen (14-7, 3-0 BW), UC Irvine’s Max Fardanesh and Rohan Sachdev (7-5, 2-2 BW), and Toa Maeda and Visaya of Hawai‘i (10-6, 4-0 BW).

The All-Big West second team singles includes Avendano (9-4, 3-0 BW), Fardanesh (8-11, 3-2 BW), Cal Poly’s Aaron Eliscu (14-6, 3-2 BW), UC Irvine's Tal Goodman (8-10, 3-1 BW),  Cal Poly's Luc Hoeijmans (10-5, 1-1 BW), UC Santa Barbara’s Diogo Morais (14-5, 4-1 BW) and UC Davis’ Ivan Savkin (8-3, 4-1 BW). Second team doubles include the pairs of Goodman and Sakagawa of UC Irvine (7-4, 2-2 BW), Bollinger and Kurt Miller of UC Davis (10-7, 3-1 BW), Lubbe and Leo Matthysen of Cal Poly (2-5, 1-1 BW) and Dylan Paterson and Savkin of UC Davis (5-3, 2-1 BW).