M. Tennis: Former Falcon leads UC Santa Barbara to conference championship

Nathan Eshmade (center) helped lead UC Santa Barbara to the Big West Championship
Nathan Eshmade (center) helped lead UC Santa Barbara to the Big West Championship

One year after winning the CCCAA State Championship in both singles and doubles for Cerritos College, Nathan Eshmade has made a major impact on the UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team. Now a junior, Eshmade helped lead his Gauchos team to the Big West Championship over the weekend, which earns them entry into the NCAA Tournament on May. Over the weekend, #3-seeded UCSB defeated #1-seeded UC Irvine, 4-3 to earn the bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Gauchos are curently ranked #60 in the country.

The match was tied at 3-3 when Eshmade clinched the title for UC Santa Barbara (15-9) with a three-set victory, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3. Throughout the season, Eshmade has moved his way from the team's #5 singles player to now competing in the #1 spot on the ladder. Eshmade and his doubles partner, Erik Johnsson, posted a 6-2, 6-4 win in the #1 doubles match to start the day.

Nathan Eshmade at the state championships with the Falcons While with the Falcons, Eshmade became the first Cerritos player to win the CCCAA State Championship in singles and doubles and was also selected as the State Player of the Year. He completed his sophomore season undefeated in singles play (28-0) without losing a set and was named 1st Team All-SCC, while he and doubles partner Amadi Kagoma (Malezi School, Kenya HS) garnered 1st Team All-SCC in doubles. Eshmade, the ITA Player of the Year, won the conference title, while he and Kagoma were 24-2 on the season and won the conference championship in doubles. Eshmade concluded his career with Cerritos by being named the state's Athlete of the Month for May, 2014.