Mustangs Upset No. 35 UC Santa Barbara for Share of Regular Season Title

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — It took a gritty 4-3 comeback upset victory over the No. 35 team in the nation, but for the first time since 2022, the Mustangs are Big West Regular Season Champions.

The Gauchos (16-6, 5-1 Big West) entered the match riding a 22-match Big West regular season win streak, dating back to their last non-postseason conference loss in 2023. Cal Poly (14-8, 5-1 Big West) not only snapped that streak but also ended their rival’s nine-match overall winning streak this season, securing its first Blue-Green victory since 2021.

Coming into this year’s edition of the rivalry, UC Santa Barbara had already mathematically clinched at least a share of the regular season title, but will now stand as co-champions alongside the Mustangs. UC Irvine has the opportunity to join the regular season title share tomorrow with a 2 p.m. season finale win against sixth-place UC San Diego (9-13, 1-3 Big West).

No. 35 UCSB made quick work of the doubles point, earning 6-3 and 6-2 victories on the first two courts with the pairs of Lubbe/Matthysen and Ferguson/Haviv. The No. 55 duo of Avendano/Liu secured the Gauchos’ only ranked win of the day, as both ranked Gauchos in singles (Liu and Rolland) would later fall.

Eliscu/Kamyshev battled hard on the final court but went unfinished, leading 5-3 with plenty of momentum to take the match had the doubles point not already been clinched.

Before transitioning to singles, head coach Nick Carless held a heartfelt Senior Night ceremony honoring graduate transfer Luc Hoeijmans and fourth-year Mustang Aaron Eliscu. The 1986 national champion Cal Poly men’s tennis team was also recognized on court afterward.

Riding momentum from the doubles point, UCSB earned another swift victory on the final singles court, with Sean Ferguson falling 3-6, 3-6.

The Mustangs then nabbed four of the final five points. First, freshman phenom Jovan Lubbe shocked No. 89 Lucca Liu on the headliner court, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4, putting Cal Poly’s first point on the board. Lubbe had actually lost nine straight games between a second-set shutout and a quick 0-3 hole in the third before coming back to win six of the next seven games for the upset victory.

Raz Haviv followed shortly with a 6-2, 7-5 straight-sets victory on court four. UCSB responded across the way on court three, as Luc Hoeijmans fell 6-4, 0-6, 5-7. But down 2-3 in the team score, Cal Poly fired back once again with perhaps the greatest stunner of the evening: Aaron Eliscu, in just his fifth collegiate match at the No. 2 singles spot, took down No. 57 Dominique Rolland, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.

It all came down to Jack Cross, just a few weeks removed from a fractured rib, at No. 5 singles, with a guaranteed top-two seed in the Big West Championship and the regular season title all on the line. As the other matches finished around them, Cross and Charlie Underwood had barely wrapped up a second-set 7-6(5) tiebreaker in UCSB’s favor to extend the match, after Cross took the opening set 6-3.

Cross found himself down 4-5 and on the ropes at 15-40, match point. He then completely overturned not just the match itself but the fortunes of the program as a whole, securing the 7-5 clincher and Cal Poly’s 17th overall men’s tennis title.

The Mustangs now await seeding for the Big West Championship, taking place from April 23-26 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. UC Irvine’s final match against UC San Diego will determine Cal Poly’s seeding.

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