March 1, 2004
Dear Slug Tennis Fans,
We just returned from St. Peter, MN from the fourth ITA National Indoor Team
Championships. This is our third trip to host Gustavus Adolphus's facility
in the last year as we played in last year's indoor and NCAA Final Eight in
St. Peter. All in all a great trip that will be viewed in hindsight as a key
moment in our season.
We entered as the three seeds in our fourth consecutive trip to the tournament.
UC Santa Cruz won the inaugural event in 2001 and reached the final in 2002
before finishing fourth in 2003. We drew Bates College in the first round and
played very well in beating them 7-0 winning all the singles in straight
sets. Brian Casey was in top form leading the team at one singles to
a 6-4,6-4 win against a very solid player and great athlete.
The rest of the group followed with solid efforts in adjusting to the indoor
courts and adjusting to their opponents.
In the semifinal against host team and two-time Indoor Champions Gustavus Adolphus
we faced a major challenge. We opened with a strong win at three doubles as
sophomore Shane Templeman and freshman Matt Seeberger continued
their winning ways with an 8-5 victory. At two doubles, Brian Casey
and Bryce Parmelly got off to a quick start but struggled to find consistency
in an 8-5 defeat. At one doubles we battled from down and early break
to serve down 6-7. By this time, junior Matt Brunner was reading
the returns well and moving effectively at net. In his first national competition,
junior transfer Kellen Ali-Christie played well but struggled with serving
consistency which resulted in some costly doubles to lose the set and doubles
point 8-6. Gustavus has a great tradition in doubles, and we have come
from behind on several occasions against them in the past after dropping the
doubles point.
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| Super Stud Bryce Parmelly celebrating his 21st birthday cake at Indoor Nationals with the Casey boys and Shane Templeman. |
First off in singles was
Matt Brunner who played very strong mentally but missed a few too many
balls against his very steady opponent. I was proud of how he kept his head
in the match and competed to the last point before falling 6-4, 6-3.
Matt Seeberger played beautifully blending great passing shots and timely
advances to the net to register a straight set win at two singles against a
very strong and competitive opponent. Brian Casey down a set and 0-3
kept fighting and was able to level the match at a set apiece with some tenacious
play. His opponent was a very talented Div l transfer with a solid game and
fiery attitude. Brain served for the match at 5-4 in the third as was
two points from a victory that would have changed the momentum of the match.
Not serving as well late in the match, he faltered and let his opponent gain
the momentum to take the match and allow the Gusties to build a 3-1 match
advantage.
Our bottom three players,
Shane Templeman, Kevin Casey and Andrew Cohen have been
very good spots for us and I felt confident that we could even the match. Shane
was first off with a very impressive 7-5,7-6 win against a very
good serve and volley player. Shane competed exceptionally well in breaking
back in the second set to send the match into a tiebreaker. Kevin Casey
dropped the first set but rallied to even the match with and incredible get
on set point. Andrew Cohen was up 5-2 at the time and we were
clearly charging back in the match. Kevin was broken to start the third and
his opponent made some great volleys to maintain serve throughout the third
to ice the match. Andrew let the lead slip and lost in straight sets once the
match was decided. Our team was clearly disappointed with the loss and I was
uncertain that they would be able to emotionally respond in a key third fourth
match against Trinity the following day.
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| Team with beautiful Indoor Championship 3rd place Trophy |