April 6, 2008

UC Santa Barbara, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team celebrated Senior Day with a convincing 6-1 victory (4-1 Big West, 11-6 overall) over the University of Pacific at the UCSB Recreation Courts Sunday afternoon. After sweeping the doubles point, the Gauchos trounced on the weary Tiger squad combining for five singles victories.

Graduating seniors Jack Hui and Nigel Barton led the way for the Gauchos in doubles as they both posted wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions respectively. Hui, who matched up with sophomore Philip Therp squeezed out an 8-7 victory over Moritz Starke and David Gonzalez while Barton and partner Bijan Hejazi made quick work out of Artem Gramma and Toledo winning 8-2.

The momentum carried over to singles play as Alex Konigsfeldt, Max Taylor and Josh Finkelstein all registered straight set victories to put the match out of reach for the Tigers. Later in the day, Hui came back from a 0-3 deficit in the third set of his singles match, winning six straight games to improve his record to a team best 12-5 on the year. Sadly, senior Anders Dalskov, Big West Male Scholar Athlete of the Year, was unable to take the court today on Senior Day due to a hampering knee injury. Fortunately, the Gauchos have put themselves in great position with the win today over to qualify for the NCAA tournament and extend the season long enough for Dalskov to get back in the mix.

The win insures the Gauchos a share of the Big West regular season title and a first round bye at the Conference Tournament later this month. The No. 56 UCSB will head back to the road for the remainder of the regular season and will have chances to improve their national ranking in matches with No. 13 Pepperdine and No. 36 Boise State.

Doubles
No. 1 Therp/Hui (UCSB) def. Starke/Gonzalez 8-7
No. 2 Konigsfeldt/Finkelstein (UCSB) def. Delsin/Veskimagi 8-5
No. 3 Hejazi/Barton (UCSB) def. Gramma/Toledo 8-2

Singles
No. 1 Moritz Starke def. Philip Therp (UCSB) 7-6, 5-7 (10-4)
No. 2 Bijan Hejazi (UCSB) def. David Gonzalez 6-2, 4-6, 2-1 ret.
No. 3 Jack Hui (UCSB) def. Renan Delsin 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
No. 4 Alex Konigsfeldt (UCSB) def. Artem Gramma 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 Max Taylor (UCSB) def. Vegerd Veskimagi 6-3, 6-1
No. 6 Josh Finkelstien (UCSB) def. Chase Oliphant 6-1, 6-0