Cal Poly Women’s Tennis took down Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara 4-3 on Saturday, April 22 at the Arnhold Tennis Center.
Thanks to sisters sophomore Peyton Dunkle and redshirt junior Delanie Dunkle, the Mustangs (12-8, 6-3 Big West) came back with two tiebreaker wins to take their final match of the regular season against the Gauchos (6-14, 6-3 Big West).
With the score at 3-2 for the Gauchos, eyes turned to courts three and four. The older sister, Delanie, won set one 6-3. In set two, she battled to a 7-6 (7-5) victory to tie the rivalry matchup.
Delanie told Mustang News before the season started that one of their goals for the year was to “beat the Gauchos.”
WIth the score a three apiece, No. 3 Peyton Dunkle needed a win over Kia Reuter to win the match for the team. Peyton took set one 6-3. In set two, the two battled and Peyton edged out a 7-6 (8-6) nail-biter for the victory.
This is Peyton’s third time clinching a match for the Mustangs this season. Individually, she is on a five-match win streak and finished the regular season with a 10-6 record on the season.
At No. 5 and No. 6, freshmen Kennedy Buntrock and Alexandra Ozerets picked up the other points for the Mustangs. No. 5 Buntrock grabbed a 6-2 win and a near-perfect 6-1 set two victory. Ozerets tallied 6-2 wins in both sets.
Last year, the Mustangs lost to UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championships.
The win put the Mustangs in a five-way tie for second place in the conference regular season standings with UCSB, CSU Northridge, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.
As a leader in the tiebreakers, Cal Poly secured the No. 2 seed in the Big West Championships and will face No. 7 seed UC Davis on Thursday, April 27 at 9 a.m. at the Barnes Tennis in San Diego.