The Blue-Green Rivalry will be renewed this Saturday as the UCSB women’s tennis team takes on Cal Poly.

The Gauchos are having a very successful season thus far at 12-6 overall and are coming off a big 6-1 win against Portland over the weekend.

Against Portland, UCSB started off strong and took the important doubles point to go ahead 1-0 early. After struggling in doubles competition to begin the season, changes made by Head Coach Simon Thibodeau have now turned it into one of Santa Barbara’s strengths.

UCSB then proceeded to win five of the six singles matches to secure the impressive home win. Sophomore Stacy Yam and senior Erica Cano were particularly impressive, as they both won their singles matchups in straight sets. Yam defeated Tori Troesch 6-3, 7-6 and Cano defeated Saroop Dhatt 6-1, 6-4.

While UCSB is having one of its best seasons in decades, rival Cal Poly is having a season to forget. The Mustangs have won only once in their last 11 matches and hold an overall record of 3-14.

Cal Poly also played Portland over the weekend but was taken down by the Pilots 4-3. The Mustangs were able to secure the doubles point against Portland but, unlike UCSB, they struggled in singles play. The Mustangs lost four out of six singles matchups to continue their disappointing season.

After a week of being out of the ITA rankings, Santa Barbara broke back in and now stands at No. 68 in the country. The Gauchos had gotten as high as No. 54 earlier in the season, which was their highest national ranking in over 20 years.

Saturday’s match is vitally important to both UCSB and Cal Poly as each team looks to establish momentum going into the Big West Tournament.

UCSB is currently third in the Big West standings, behind only No. 30 UC Irvine and No. 43 Long Beach State.

With only two conference games left after Saturday’s Blue-Green rivalry, the Gauchos need to beat the Mustangs to keep their chances of finishing first or second in the Big West alive.

The match will take place Saturday in Santa Barbara at 12 p.m.

 

 

A version of this article appeared on page 16 of April 4rth, 2013’s print edition of the Nexus
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