Time for the NCAA Team Championships...

Slug Tennis Family and Friends,

The Slugs are off to the first rounds of NCAA team play this upcoming weekend. We get in the vans this afternoon as we head down to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges for the tournament we have all been waiting for. It has been an amazing year thus far, and we intend to go the rest of the way, guns blazing, till the last ball is struck. From here on out the NCAA’s is a single elimination tournament, last team standing taking home a National Title with a ring to match. Here is the link to this years NCAA Team Championship Bracket: http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/tennis-men/d3

Our first round of play (round of 32) will be this Friday at 11am at CMS against the Sagehens of Pomona Pitzer. With a loss to them at the tail end of our spring break trip there is no doubt this is a match we are all excited for. As we get ready for battle the emphasis is clear: Play hard, Play together, Run towards winning, trust our training, and fight to the very end. If we do this the results will take care of themselves.

If we get through our Friday match with PP we will move on to a Saturday match (round of 16) at 9am again at CMS. The #1 seed in this tournament is the host team CMS Stags, and it is safe to say they are the favorite to get through to Saturday’s match. One of our home victories was against CMS earlier this season and we hope to meet them again.

It is the weekend that makes all the work that we have put in worth it. The morning workouts, practices, sacrifices, highs, lows, all of it… We get to put it all together and let it all hang out. We get to go into battle as a family with the depth of our experience untouchable. It is an opportunity we are all very grateful for.

Here is the link for live-score updates for those who wish to follow the Slugs with up to minute updates: http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/mten/2011-12/releases/NCAA_Regionals_Info We hope to see as many of you in the LA area as possible, there is no substitute for fan support and it’s going to be Energized!

A Quick 2012 Ojai Recap:

As we are running short on time before heading south I would like to do a quick recap of highlights on the 113^th Annual Ojai D3 Tournament played two weekends ago. There were many highlights that deserve recognition for the Slugs:

-Sam Rodgers played an amazing 3-set match against a Redlands #3 before coming up a little short; battled to the very end.

-Bryce Bettwy reached the round of 16 winning two great matches, including Pomona’s #3, before falling in 3 sets to Whittier #1.

-Ian Stanley also reached the round of 16 playing some amazing aggressive and solid tennis taking down a seed in the first round.

-Erik Rosner and Ian Stanley had a thriller of a match, earning a match-point but falling short to the eventual Ojai doubles champions.

-Devin Nerenberg reached the semi-finals of the singles draw, playing better each match, before falling to a “smoking hot” teammate Andre Halabi.

The two biggest stories for the slugs this recent Ojai come from our doubles team of Eli Scandalis/Devin Nerenberg and singles specialist Andre “the sniper” Halabi.

-Eli and Devin played the best doubles I have seen all season taking down 3 tough teams, including Redlands very tough #1 team, to reach the semi-finals. Although losing in the semis to very strong team from Cal Lutheran it was a tournament that both Eli and Devin should feel extremely proud of.

-Andre Halabi, coming in as our #4 singles player, beat 4 seeded players to get to the finals of this years Ojai. Andre took down the #9, #5, #3, and #1 seeded players on route to the final. After making a few adjustments with his training a few months back it was clear to see it was paying off. He tracked the ball amazingly well while putting up a wall that few could hit through.

So we’re off to CMS today to do what we train for. I hope to see a lot of faces this weekend and as always thanks again for all the support.

Sincerely,

Coach Parmelly