PHOENIX — A three-match Arizona road trip started off strong for UC San Diego on Saturday morning with a 6-1 win over Montana State. The Tritons (2-2) won the doubles point and singles matches two through six in the victory.
 
The neutral-site contest was held on the campus of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Doubles
Freshmen David Adamson and Robert Freedman won their second-straight match together to kick off the morning. The duo won 6-4 at No. 3 doubles.
 
Court one finished with the same scoreline, with Zach Pellouchoud and Pelayo Rodriguez victorious to clinch the doubles point for the Tritons. That resulted in the tightly-contested No. 2 doubles match to go unfinished with Montana State up 6-5.
 
Singles
The Tritons started singles play with a pair of straight-set victories. Diogo Tinoco won on court two 6-1, 6-3 and Adamson had a 6-2, 7-5 result at No. 5 singles.
 
No. 1 singles also wrapped up in two sets and resulted in Montana State's lone point of the dual match. UC San Diego's Carson Lee lost the first set 2-6 but forced a tiebreaker in the second, where he fell 3-6.
 
Freedman also lost his first set at No. 6 singles but fought back to take the next two and clinch the dual match for the Tritons. The remaining two matches were played to the end, and both went three sets. Pellouchoud went to a tiebreaker at the end of set three at No. 4 singles, where he was victorious 7-5. Rodriguez wrapped up his win on court three with a back-and-forth 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win.
 
QUOTABLE
"Tough match today, but we started out well," head coach Timmer Willing said. "Doubles was tight all the way through, we had some close ones that could have gone either way. In singles we got on top of them with wins from David and Diogo, but it was close everywhere else and ended up coming down to the last three matches on the court. Robert ended up sneaking back into his match and then clinching it for us. Montana State is a tough, gritty team and it was a good win for us. Tomorrow is going to be tough with the travel and altitude, but we are going to see what we are ready for.
 
"One of the biggest things that happened for us today was the men's volleyball team came out and cheered us on at a crucial moment and it helped swing the momentum. We have to give half that win to the men's volleyball team. I appreciated them coming out because they made a huge difference for us."
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• UC San Diego has now won the doubles point in three of four matches this season.
• Junior Zach Pellouchoud is a perfect 3-0 in 2025.
• Saturday's match was the first-ever contest between the two programs.

UP NEXT
The second of UC San Diego's three matches in Arizona is tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 16. The Tritons visit Northern Arizona at 10:00 a.m. MST/9:00 a.m. PST. Live scores will be available here.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.