Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus

The UC Santa Barbara men’s tennis team’s unbeaten start to the season was halted in emphatic fashion by UC Berkeley’s Golden Bears on Jan. 27. The match was previously to be played on Sunday but was delayed due to rain.

The match began with three doubles matches, with the team that won the majority earning one point. This was followed by six singles matches, each worth one point, making this a best of seven tie. 

UC Berkeley (Cal) started incredibly strong in the doubles, jumping to an early lead in matches two and three, which were soon converted to wins. This meant the Gauchos’ first pairing of senior Gianluca Brunkow and junior Dominique Rolland left their match unfinished at 4-4, with the Golden Bears taking a 1-0 lead into the singles.

In singles, Cal again took an early lead in multiple matches, which swung the momentum firmly in their favour. The Golden Bears’ highest ranked singles players played very clean matches to put them 2-0. At fifth singles, Cal’s sophomore Timofey Stepanov, one of five nationally ranked Cal singles players, dealt the final punch, defeating UCSB’s junior Conrad Brown, giving the Cal an unassailable 4-0 lead. This left three competitive matches unfinished. Rolland, junior Diogo Morais and freshman Teo Masera were all fighting hard in deciding sets, but with the Gauchos unable to tackle the Golden Bears’ 4-0 lead, they were called incomplete.

After a tough fight against an unbeaten the Golden Bears this season, the Gauchos will dust themselves off and try to improve on their 3-1 record on Feb. 8 at 11 a.m. against Gonzaga University in the Arnhold Tennis Center, quickly followed by another home match the next day at 2 p.m. against Pacific University.

A version of this article was printed in the Daily Nexus on Feb. 6.