No. 10 UCLA men’s tennis was defeated by UC Santa Barbara 4-1 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend championship match held Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. With this win, UC Santa Barbara secured a spot in next month’s ITA National Team Indoor Championship tournament in Dallas and Waco, Texas.
UC Santa Barbara claimed the doubles point after Miguel Avendano and Lucca Liu won on Court 2 against UCLA’s No. 47-ranked pair Rudy Quan and Aadarsh Tripathi, 6-2. The Gauchos clinched the doubles point with a second victory on Court 3, where Diogo Morais and Lorenzo Brunkow defeated Gianluca Ballotta and Andy Nguyen of UCLA, 6-3.
In singles play, both teams split the first sets across three courts each. Aadarsh Tripathi provided UCLA’s only point with a straight-set win over Carson Lee, 6-1, 6-1, on Court 5. However, UCSB responded with victories from Lucca Liu over Rudy Quan (6-3, 6-4) on Court 1; Charlie Underwood over Gianluca Ballotta (6-3, 6-2) on Court 6; and Diogo Morais over Andy Nguyen (6-2, 6-3) on Court 4 to secure the team win.
Two matches remained unfinished: Spencer Johnson of UCLA led Dominique Rolland of UCSB (6-3, 5-4), while Emon van Loben Sels of UCLA was ahead of Miguel Avendano (6-3, 5-3).
UCLA now prepares for non-conference road matches against No. 3 Stanford at Arrillaga Tennis Center – Taube Pavilion on January 31 at noon Pacific Time and then faces No. 15 California at Hellman Tennis Complex on February 1 at noon.
The match results are as follows:
Singles:
1. #70 Lucca Liu (UCSB) def. #53 Rudy Quan (UCLA) 6-3, 6-4
2. #75 Spencer Johnson (UCLA) vs. #32 Dominique Rolland (UCSB) 6-3, 5-4, unfinished
3. #20 Emon van Loben Sels (UCLA) vs. Miguel Avendano (UCSB) 6-3, 5-3, unfinished
4. Diogo Morais (UCSB) def. Andy Nguyen (UCLA) 6-2, 6-3
5. Aadarsh Tripathi (UCLA) def. Carson Lee (UCSB) 6-1, 6-1
6. Charlie Underwood (UCSB) def. Gianluca Ballotta (UCLA) 6-3, 6-2
Doubles:
1. #19 Spencer Johnson/Emon van Loben Sels (UCLA) vs. Conrad Brown/Dominique Rolland (UCSB) tied at four games each when play stopped.
2. Miguel Avendano/Lucca Liu (UCSB) def. #47 Rudy Quan/Aadarsh Tripathi (UCLA), 6–2.
3. Lorenzo Brunkow/Diogo Morais (UCSB) def. Gianluca Ballotta/Andy Nguyen (UCLA), 6–3.
With this result UC Santa Barbara improves to a record of three wins and no losses while UCLA stands at two wins and one loss with a national ranking of No.10.
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