UCSB Tennis’ Amelia Honer continued her stellar run at the NCAA Singles National Championship on Wednesday, clinching a spot in the Quarterfinals with a comeback win.
Honer took down No. 37 Julia Garcia Ruiz of the University of Oklahoma in three sets in the Round of 32 to move on.
The Gaucho will now face off against the top player in the country on Thursday as she takes on Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M.
The opening set saw the two sides split the first four games before Garcia Ruiz ripped off two straight wins to secure the set-one win.
Once again, the second set was a back-and-forth affair that led to a 4-4 tie. Garcia Ruiz then picked up a win to take a 5-4 lead, but Honer stepped up when it mattered most and rattled off the next three games to capture the second set, 7-5.
The tight matchup continued into the third set, as Honer and Garcia Ruiz exchanged blows throughout until Honer was able to pull away and pick up a 6-4 win to move on in the bracket.
Pablo Masjuan
As for the Gaucho men’s squad, Pablo Masjuan’s NCAA Singles Championship run came to an end in the Round of 16 on Wednesday.
Masjuan, the No. 75 player in the nation, fell in straight sets to No. 15-ranked Cooper Williams of Harvard.
The final set scores for the matchup were 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.
With his performance this week, Masjuan became the first Gaucho Men’s Tennis All-American since 2019 and the first to reach the Men’s Singles Round of 16 since 1989.