The UTSA Roadrunners (3-2) were in the sunny locale of Santa Barbara, Cali. this week for a pair of matches against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (3-1) and the University of the Pacific Tigers (0-2). The ‘Runners came away from their road trip with a split of the two games, falling to the Gauchos on Saturday by a score of 1-6 before coming back on Sunday to see off the Tigers by a final score of 4-1.

UTSA first took on the Gauchos on Saturday afternoon, and the Gauchos struck early. The pair of Philip Jordan and Kai Brady defeated UTSA’s Joao Ceolin and Javier Gonzales in a clean 6-0 sweep to start doubles play. The pairing of Sebastian Rodriguez and Tiago Torres defeated the duo of Stefano Tsorotiotis and Alejandro Vedri 6-4 to tie things up and send it to a decisive final game. Unfortunately for the ‘Runners, the team of Garret Skelly and Maxim Groysman lost to Gianluca Brunknow and Pablo Masjuan in a tight game, 7-6 (7-2) giving the Gauchos the doubles point and the early lead. 

Moving into singles play, the Gauchos continued to press their advantage and picked up two more points with Brady defeating UTSA’s Danijal Muminovic 7-5, 6-2 and Brunknow triumphing over Groysman 6-3, 6-1. With the match at 3-0, UTSA needed to win four straight singles matches to win the overall match, and they got off to a good start with Rodriguez defeating Tsorotiotis 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 to give UTSA some life. It was short-lived, however, as immediately afterward, Masjuan defeated Torres in a close match 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to give the Gauchos the overall match win. The Gauchos tacked on two more points with Krustev defeating Gonzalez 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 and Jordan defeating Ceolin 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 to give the Gauchos the match win by a final score of 6-1. 

In their game against the University of the Pacific Tigers, the ‘Runners got off to a similar slow start. Ceolin and Gonzales won their doubles match over the Tigers’ Aleska Mardjonovic and Coby McCaig, 6-1. However, the team of Torres and Rodriguez dropped their match to Peter Alam and Manroop Saini 4-6, while Groysman and Skelly lost to the team of Ran Amar and Liam Puttergill 5-7 to give the Tigers the doubles point, putting them up 0-1 in the match.

The ‘Runners had a massive rebound in performance in singles play. First, Rodriguez defeated Puttergill 6-2, 6-2 to tie the match at one all, then Torres defeated Amar 6-2, 6-1 to give the ‘Runners the lead. Muminovic cruised past McCaig 6-4, 6-4 to put the ‘Runners on match point and Miguel Alonso put the finishing touches on the UTSA victory with a 7-5, 6-2 triumph over Saini. Ceolin was on his way to securing a singles win of his own, but with the match in hand, all remaining games were suspended with UTSA taking the victory by a final score of 4-1.

The UTSA men’s tennis team will be back in action on Feb. 18-19 in Corpus Christi, Texas, for the H.E.B Tournament of Champions.