SAN FRANCISCO – The University of San Francisco men's tennis team carried the momentum from Friday's victory over UC Davis into Saturday afternoon's contest with No. 69 UC Santa Barbara, downing the Gauchos, 4-3, at the Cal Club.
With the win, USF moved to 4-2 on the year, while the Gauchos fell to 2-2.
In a match that almost mirrored the previous two, the Dons took the doubles point and won the first three singles points to clinch the match. USF would go one to drop its final three singles matches, but not before it had secured its biggest win of the young season.
For the third straight match, the doubles tandems of
Bernardo Saraiva /
Nils Skajaa and
Richard Bucalem /
Jonathon Knowlman combined victories to give the Dons the first point of the day.
Thai Tu,
Bernardo Saraiva and
Germain Bahri also picked up points for their singles victories.
“The guys got a good win against a very high-quality UCSB team,” said USF coach
Peter Bartlett. “The home crowd was helpful for us to have this day. We just hope to keep building on this for our team confidence. The doubles point was a big momentum builder for us and it proved to be the difference in the match."
The Dons travel to take on the Nevada Wolfpack (6-3) on Saturday, Feb. 23 at a time TBA.
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DOUBLES:
1. Mbonisi Ndimande / Ziad Sultan (UCSB) def.
William Schumacher /
Thai Tu (USF) 8-6
2. Bernardo Saraiva /
Nils Skajaa (USF) def. Axel Bouillin / Alexander Gryaznov (UCSB) 8-7(6)
3. Richard Bucalem /
Jonathon Knowlman (USF) def. Benjamin Recknagel / Miles Seemann (UCSB) 8-5
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
SINGLES:
1. Thai Tu (USF) def. Benjamin Recknagel (UCSB) 6-2, 7-6(5)
2. Mbonisi Ndimande (UCSB) def.
William Schumacher (USF) 7-6(5), 6-3
3. Bernardo Saraiva (USF) def. Axel Bouillin (UCSB) 6-3, 6-3
4. Ziad Sultan (UCSB) def.
Rich Van Hout (USF) 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1
5. Alexander Gryaznov (UCSB) def.
Nils Skajaa (USF) 6-7(4), 6-4(10-5)
6. Germain Bahri (USF) def. Jacob Johnson (UCSB) 6-3, 6-4
Order of finish: 6, 3, 1, 2, 4, 5
FINAL SCORE: USF 4, UCSB 3
