Recap in Fresno. On to the weekend we've all been waiting for...

Dear Slug Tennis Friends and Family,

Hope you all had a good weekend! The Slugs came back from back-to-back matches in Fresno this past weekend with a solid showing. Coming of a stellar performance at the National Indoor Championships the week before, the Slugs were able to go 1-1 in Fresno, beating Division II Sonoma State and falling to the NAIA defending National Champions Fresno Pacific University.

Fresno Pacific

UCSC was not able to overcome the reigning NAIA champions facing a 7-2 loss to the Sunbirds. The highlights of the match included wins by both Bryce Bettwy and Sam Rodgers at the five and six singles spots. While coming out in the doubles a little flat, Coach Parmelly said he was very impressed with how we competed in the singles matches to follow.

Sonoma State

The Slugs had a strong showing against Sonoma State, beating the Seawolves 7-2. Erik Rosner/Ian Stanley and Devin Nerenberg/Eli Scandalis were able to take decisive wins in the doubles, winning their matches 8-5 and 8-6 respectively. Erich Koenig/Andre Halabi lost a close match at three doubles 8-5. The Slugs then went on to dominate in singles, winning 5 of 6 matches. Nerenberg, Koenig, Halabi, and Bettwy went on to win there singles matches decisively in straight sets. Erik Rosner pulled out an amazing three set match in the third set tiebreaker 7-3. Sam Rodgers was the only loss at number six singles coming off a strong victory the day before.

Looking forward to this weekend the team is gearing up for the home matches against Kenyon and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps this Friday and Saturday March 9^th and 10^th. You are all invited to come out and support the team as they will be extremely exciting matches. Kenyon, currently ranked #6 nationally, will be this Friday with the match start time being pushed to 2:30pm due minor class conflicts. The match with CMS, currently ranked #4 nationally, will be this Saturday at 12:00pm. For those not able to come see the match live I will be posting twitter updates of live scores in both matches at: https://twitter.com/#!/UCSCSlugTennis. For those of you attending the Friday Match with Kenyon please make sure to purchase a parking permit at the kiosk at the main entrance of UCSC before coming to the match. Parking on Saturday will be free as long as you avoid parking in spots marked otherwise.

Coach Parmelly and the team are also extending the invitation to join them for dinner after the match on Friday at Pono Hawaiian Grill. Coaches and many of the players will be there from 7:30 to around 9pm so feel free to stop by to grab a bite to eat and hang out with the team. Menus/pricing as well as directions to Pono can be found at their website http://ponohawaiiangrill.com/. We hope to see you all this weekend!

Slug Tennis Nation