It was rare for a Blue-Green match at the Ronca Tennis Center to be silent. Hordes of supporters from both sides quietly swarmed the fifth court, while student-athletes and staff comprising both teams watched from opposite sides of the adjacent third court. Meanwhile Cal Poly Men’s Tennis’ No. 5 Jack Cross awaited the 15-40 serve from UC Santa Barbara’s Charlie Underwood.
Both sides were faced with arguably the highest stakes of their respective regular seasons, with their final regular-season match reaching a standstill at three points apiece. The dual between Cross and Underwood was the only remaining active match, and the culmination of a four hour-long contest between the rival programs that would see the victor claiming at least a portion of the regular-season Big West title.
At the end of a gritty matchup, Cross found himself ahead of his counterpart 6-5 in the dual’s third set, where he needed just one more point to cross the finish line. Underwood’s first serve missed wide left. Ten painstakingly silent seconds later, a shouted “Nope!” from Cross broke the crowd’s hush, sending the attendees into a cheering frenzy.
Underwood’s second serve had gone long, allowing the Mustangs to take the final point needed to clinch the match; Cal Poly had officially secured a share of the Big West regular-season title for the first time since 2022.
The Mustangs’ (14-8, 5-1 Big West) 4-3 victory over the top-seeded, No. 35-nationally ranked UCSB was the first win they had secured over the Gauchos in six tries, with four of the six total singles matches culminating in a third set.
The last victory for the Green and Gold occurred exactly five years prior, on April 17, 2021 in an eerily similar fashion. In that match, Cal Poly also utilized a victory at the No. 5 spot to secure a 4-3 win over UCSB to clinch the Big West regular-season title.
An improbable victory
Cal Poly found themselves in a rut early into the match. The Mustangs had dropped their second consecutive doubles point in conference play and suffered a straight-sets loss at the No. 6 spot, finding themselves down 2-0 within the first hour-and-a-half of the match.
Freshman Jovan Lubbe was the first Mustang to secure a first-set victory, downing No. 89-nationally ranked Lucca Liu 6-1 in the first set. Following the break in-between sets, however, Lubbe lost nine consecutive games, dropping the second set 0-6 and falling behind in the third set 0-3.
In what was arguably the most impressive feat of the entire dual, Lubbe found a second wind, and utilized a combination of winners and volleys, as well as took advantage of unforced errors from his nationally-ranked opponent to singlehandedly flip the momentum of the match in his favor.
Lubbe clawed his way to the Mustangs’ first singles victory of the match by prevailing in six of the next seven games played of the match, including a sequence in which the freshman won five consecutive games to put Cal Poly within one point of UCSB.
“I’ve never felt this way,” Lubbe said. “I just followed what our assistant coach told me during the match in our language which is translated to ‘one point at a time.’ I just had to be confident I could do it, which started with me focusing on each point.”
With the victory, Lubbe secured his first career win over a nationally-ranked opponent. Lubbe finished his regular-season freshman campaign with a team-leading record of 13-7, accumulating 11 of those wins at the No. 1 spot. In conference play, Lubbe is 5-1.
David vs. Goliath
The Mustangs’ No. 2, senior Aaron Eliscu, was tasked with facing the Gauchos’ Dominique Rolland, the No. 57-ranked singles player in the nation.
Unranked entering the dual with Rolland, Eliscu went game-for-game with Rolland in the first set of the match. The largest gap between the two competitors was two games, which occurred when Eliscu lost the set, 5-7.
Eliscu began to pick up steam in the second set, taking six of the next nine games to win 6-3.
The final set between the two seniors was similar to the first, with the match culminating in an eerily similar 5-5 tie. This time, however, Eliscu triumphed in two consecutive games to claim the 7-5 set victory, and overall dual victory over Rolland.
“It was a lot of back-and-forth, there were a lot of breaks; it wasn’t your typical type of tennis,” Eliscu said. “But I knew based on how the match was going, how the rallies were going, that I could win for sure if I just stuck with it mentally, and stuck to my game plan.”
With the victory, Eliscu finished his final regular season as a Mustang with a 12-6 record, good enough for the second-best record on the team. He also accumulated a 3-2 record in conference play, all three of his wins having come from his appearances at the No. 2-line.
A Hollywood ending
The title-clinching victory came from the final match played between the Mustangs’ No. 5 Cross and the Gauchos’ Underwood.
Cross was initially on his way to one of his easier victories throughout conference play. The sophomore won his first set in quick fashion, 6-3. However Underwood took the second set 6-7 to become just the third opponent Cross had faced to win the second set after dropping the first.
In the third set, Cross staved off two consecutive elimination points en route to winning three straight games to ultimately clinch the third set, 7-5 and the overall match, 4-3.
“These are the moments you dream about when you’re growing up playing tennis,” Cross said. “There’s so much love and brotherhood on this team that the only things I was thinking about was to take down Santa Barbara and to get it done for my brothers.”
Cross’ late-game heroics ultimately pushed him to an overall 11-6 record on the season, and a 3-1 record against conference opponents.
Turning to the tournament
Cal Poly will be granted a week’s reprieve in order to prepare for the looming Big West Championships.
Despite the victory over the Gauchos, the Mustangs were granted the No. 3 seed in the tournament, allowing them a bye into the quarterfinals in which they will await their opponent, the victor of the match between No. 6-seed UC San Diego and No. 7-seed UC Riverside.
If Cal Poly advances, they will face No. 2-seed UC Irvine, whom they lost to 4-1 earlier in the season.
“It felt like they always believed they could win with how they’ve worked so hard throughout the season; they played with so much heart and grit,” Cal Poly Head Coach Nick Carless said. “The main priority now is to get healthy and take care of the bodies; let’s do it again, you know?”
Cal Poly’s first tournament match will be on Thursday, April 23, at 1 p.m. at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.