UCSB Tennis stars Pablo Masjuan and Amelia Honer pulled out upset victories in the opening round of the NCAA Singles Championship on Monday.
Masjuan and Honer, the lone Gauchos still competing in singles, will move on to the Round of 32 on Tuesday.
On the men’s side, Masjuan entered the tournament ranked No. 75 and took down No. 6-ranked Toby Samuel of the University of South Carolina.
In the first set, Masjuan battled back from a 5-1 deficit to level the match at 5-5. However, after both sides traded games, Samuel pulled out the tiebreaker win.
Set two was a similar story, as both sides fought back and forth until Masjuan emerged from the tiebreaking set victorious.
In the third and final set, Masjuan fell behind 2-1 before roaring back and taking a 4-2 lead. From there, Masjuan fended off the comeback effort for a 6-3 win.
Masjuan will now take on No. 38-ranked Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame in the Round of 32.
Meanwhile, Honer’s win over No. 23 Julia Andreach of Notre Dame was much more comfortable, winning in two sets.
Honer took a commanding 4-1 lead in the opening set before surrendering three straight games. However, the Gaucho took over from there and earned the 6-4 set-one win.
She carried that momentum over to the second set, where Honer dominated from start to finish and finished Andreach off with a 6-0 victory.
With the win, Honer earned a matchup against South Carolina’s Ayana Akli, the No. 11 player in the nation, in the Round of 32 on Tuesday.