The #73 UCSB women’s tennis team remains at .500 after splitting its weekend matches against San Jose State and #42 UC Irvine.
On Saturday, the Gauchos (3-3 overall, 1-1 in the Big West) were able to sweep San Jose (0-2). San Jose State managed to win only one set against Santa Barbara while the Gauchos took the other 15.
In doubles, UCSB’s gained its first victory since the Gauchos’ opening match against Santa Clara University (1-3). Playing in the #1 spot, juniors Charlotte Scatliffe and Marta Simic, who are ranked #38 among the country’s doubles teams, won 8-5.
Freshmen Carina Bjornstrom and Tova Hausman also posted a win with a dominant 8-1score. Also contributing to the doubles point was freshman Asagi Onaga and junior Brittany Kausen, who won 8-4.
“We were able to take the doubles point, which gave us confidence going into singles,” Scatliffe said. “We all came together as a team.”
Scatliffe also said that she felt Santa Barbara’s doubles play was a major reason the Gauchos were able to win so easily.
“The most impressive results came at the #2 and #3 positions,” Head Coach Pete Kirkwood said. “[Scatliffe] had a huge win at #2. She is playing as well as she has played all year. Tova really had to grind out her win. She was already battling a bad elbow and then she had some leg problems during the match. She truly fought for the win.”
The win against Santa Clara did not carry over to the Gauchos’ match the following day, however, when they faced conference opponent UC Irvine (7-2 overall, 2-0 Big West).
The Anteaters won 6-1, with Simic winning the only point for UCSB in a three-set match 6-7, 6-2, 1-0 (9). It was the first singles match that the injury-plagued Simic has played since the match against Cal State Fullerton (0-9 overall, 0-3 Big West) on Feb. 9.
The Gauchos’ play on Sunday was almost a mirrored opposite of play the previous day.
Bjornstrom won the first set of her match against junior Becky Bernhard 6-2, but could not win the second two, losing them 2-6 and 1-6.
Scatliffe lost in two sets, but forced a seventh point to be played in each 5-7, 5-7.
Up next, the Gauchos have their first away game of the season, when they travel north to visit the University of San Francisco (3-1) on Feb. 24 at 10 a.m.