Cal Poly’s home winning ended at 11 Saturday afternoon as they lost to UC Santa Barbara 0-7. With the win, the Gauchos clinched the Big West regular season title and No. 1 seed in next week’s Big West tournament.
Seniors Axel Damiens and Karl Enander were honored f0r Senior Day before the Mustangs’ final regular-season match of the year.
After the match started with the Mustangs and UC Santa Barbara splitting the first two doubles sets, it all came down to doubles.
After Damiens and junior Josh Ortlip rallied back to make the score 4-5, their comeback was halted as Damiens hit his forehand into the net, giving UC Santa Barbara set point. Then, Ortlip hit an outside serve that UC Santa Barbara smashed down the line for a winner, clinching the set and the doubles point.
“The biggest difference [in doubles] was we had kind of a poor start and then when we started coming back there were just a couple points that could have gone either way that really determined who won the match,” Ortlip said.
In singles, UC Santa Barbara quickly took a commanding 3-0 lead when Hironori Koyanagi from UC Santa Barbara defeated freshman Alexander Stater in two sets and Joseph Guillin defeated Bechard 6-2, 6-2.
Sophomore Antoine Noel came out strong but lost his momentum in the second set when Simon Freund took the match 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.
In the third set, Noel staved off two match points before Freund hit a crosscourt backhand just out of his reach. The Gauchos proceeded to win the rest of the singles matches, giving them a clean sweep with a 7-0 overall win.
With the win, the Gauchos moved to 17-6 overall while the Mustangs dropped to 17-6.
“I think we just played with a tiny bit of doubt in a tiny bit of moments and we [have] got to get rid of that,” head coach Nick Carless said.
The Mustangs started Big West Tournament play at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Palm Desert April 26.