MALIBU, Calif. – No. 21 ranked Men’s Tennis came back from down 0-2 to take down UC Santa Barbara 5-2 Sunday afternoon, moving to 3-0 on the season in what was the first road test of the young season.
“Great win for the guys today,” head coach Harry Jadun said. “UCSB from top to bottom are pretty good but overall, that’s one down, I’m excited for our opportunity tomorrow against Pepperdine, we’ve got to be sharper but the guys are up to the task.”
The Spartans won’t take much time to celebrate as they will face the defending West Coast Conference champions Pepperdine on Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET.
Live Stream with Live Results: sprtns.co/3OkfkX9
National Title Winners Shine in Season Debuts
Hitting the court for the first time this season were the ITA Fall Doubles National Champions, sophomore Ozan Baris and junior Max Sheldon. Both won decisive singles matches, but first, the ITA’s No. 41 pairing of Baris and Ronald Hohmann III teamed up to win at the No. 2 doubles spot.
The first victory together of MSU’s top dogs wasn’t enough as freshmen Aristotelis Thanos and Taym Alazmeh would fall at No. 1 singles to the ITA’s No. 37 duo of Gianluca Brunkow and Pablo Masjuan while Sebastien Collard and Graydon Lair would fall 7-6 in a tiebreak, ceding the doubles point to the Gauchos.
Spartan Win Five Consecutive Matches to Clinch Victory
After Alazmeh dropped his first match of the season at No. 5 singles, the Spartans found themselves down 2-0. No. 12 ranked Hohmann, Collard and Thanos would all respond quickly with straight-set victories, putting the Spartans up 3-2.
It was the 59th ranked…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Michigan State University Athletics…