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2002-2003 News Archive
Schedule
| Roster
May 18, 2003
Men's Tennis loses to Williams at NCAA Championships
For the third consecutive year, the UCSC Men's Tennis
Team saw its season end at the hands of the Eephs of Williams College.
UC-Santa Cruz was the #4 seed in the eight-team
tournament while Williams was unseeded. Williams jumped out to a 3-0 lead
after winning the doubles point and the #2 (Andrew Murray over Kevin Casey
4-6, 6-1, 6-2) and #3 (Jeff Kivitz over Shane Templeman 5-7, 6-0, 6-4)
singles matches. UC-Santa Cruz, however came storming back and tied the
match at 3-3 with wins at #1 singles (Brian Casey over John Haywood, 6-2,
6-7 (3), 6-4), #4 singles (Andrew Cohen over Dan Murray 6-2, 6-4) and
#5 singles (Brett Brunner over Tim White 6-4, 6-4). The match was decided
at #6 singles where Lex Urban defeated Ben Bartels 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3.
UCSC lost to Williams in the Finals in 2001 and
the Semifinals in 2002. Whereas in the past two seasons Williams would
go on to win the National Championship, this year they would lose in the
Finals to Emory University.
The Singles Championship proved somewhat dissapointing
for the Banana Slugs. #6 seed UCSC Junior Brian Casey was upset in the
first round by Nick Barnes of Coe College, 7-5, 7-6 (2). Brian's brother,
Sophomore Kevin Casey, made it to the second round before bowing out against
Eric Butorac from Gustavus Adophus, (6-0, 6-1)
In the Doubles championship, UCSC's top team of
Matt Brunner and Ben Bartels lost to Nick Barnes and Nick Frank from Coe
College 7-5, 6-0.
Portions of this article courtesy of Gustavus
Adolphus Sports Information.
May 7, 2003
Letter from Coach Hansen: Men's Tennis headed to NCAA Championships
Dear Slug Tennis fans,
We did it!! We are off to St Peter MN next Monday
to play in the final 8 of the NCAA Team Championships. We defeated a very
good U of Redlands team 5-2 in the round of 16. We kept our streak alive
of never having lost a regional final at home. After losing the doubles
point, we had a great effort at two doubles with Bryce and Brian up 6-2
when we stopped, we came out strong in singles winning 1-5 singles all
in straight sets!
Matt Brunner started things off with a dominating
performance at 4 singles. He was off the court with a 6-2,6-2 win when
Brian Casey was at 4-3 in the first set! He has been playing incredible
tennis lately and his effort set the tone. Next off was Andrew Cohen who
played a super match at 5 singles in winning 6-3,6-4. He did a great job
closing out the match after letting a 4-1 lead slip to be down 4-4 15-40
before breaking and holding with some great play. Freshman sensation Shane
Templeman was next off with a 6-3,6-0 win at three singles. Shane started
slowly but was dominant in closing out the match. Kevin Casey battled
back from 0-3 in the first to win it in a breaker and then closed out
the match 6-4. He played very well and really enjoyed putting the match
on ice. Brian was next off and showed his mental strength in saving 7
set points in the first set before winning 7-6,6-2 against one of the
regions strongest players, Brian Murphy.
I will send details of our draw as they become available
but I really wanted to thank the great crowd that came to the match. Your
support was key to us moving on and it is much appreciated. Many parents
came from great distances and we all felt honored to have you here. We
had several past National Champions in the crowd as well as our mental
and spiritual coach Jerry Lynch. The combination of all that support and
our mental strength and character carried the day. I am very proud of
this group and look forward to continuing our drive for five!
We just found out that both Brian and Kevin Casey
were selected to compete in the individual single championship and Matt
Brunner and Ben Bartels will compete in the individual doubles championship.
It is indeed and honor to be selected as one of the top 32 singles players
in the country and top 16 doubles teams. With over 340 teams in the country
these selections are tough to come by. Brian Casey was also honored at
the "Player to Watch" from the west region. In competition for
this award were many fine players and I am pleased to have Brian honored
in this fashion.
In the team competition we face a stiff test as
we drew defending NCAA team champions Williams College in the quarter
final round. If we were to get by them we play the number one seed and
host school, Gustavus Adlophus in the semifinal round. We are all very
excited about the challenge and will be well prepared going in. The schedule
of matches for the team are yet to be set but is our guess is that we
will play our first round on Wed May 14th at 2:00.
If you would like to follow our progress of our
team the web address for the championships is: http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/athletics/mt/mt.html.
Thanks again for your support and interest and go Slugs!!
Coach Hansen
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| Junior Brian Casey made the finals at the 2003 Ojai Invitational. |
April 29, 2003
Letter from Coach Hansen: Men's Tennis does well at Ojai; set to host NCAA Regionals
Dear Slug fans,
We just returned from Ojai where the Slugs played
some inspired tennis. Brian Casey continues to amaze with his balanced
attack as he rolled to his second straight Ojai singles final. He defeated
the top ranked player in the region in Ivan Yea in the semi's in a titanic
battle that lasted over three hours for two hotly contested sets. ivan
served for the first set but Brian broke to force a tiebreaker where he
elevated his game to dominate 7-3. In the second he served for the match
at 5-4 but was broken. Ivan held off three match points before Brian secured
the win 7-5 in the second. In the final, at a packed Libby Park, Brian
lost to Cal Lutheran's Amir Marandy 6-3, 6-2.
Matt Brunner played amazing tennis in reaching the
third round and was the only player to take a set off Marandy. Matt won
the first and was up a break in the second before falling 4-6, 6-4,6-4.
It was the best I had ever seen Matt play but I have said that a lot this
year. Shane Templeman and Kevin Casey played some great doubles in reaching
the quarter finals. They beat two quality teams and showed the skills
to challenge anyone at their spot. Ben Bartels defeated a one player from
Chapman and looked very good before losing to a top player from Redlands.
Andrew Cohen played well in advancing to the second round where he had
set points against the top player from the Pacific Northwest. Bryce Parmelly
and Brain Casey also reached the quarter finals in doubles and continue
to grow and improve.
We just received the news that we are the top ranked
team in the tough West Region and will host the first rounds of the NCAA
tournament this coming weekend. Cal Lutheran will play Redlands University
on Sat May 3rd at 1:00 at the East Fieldhouse courts and the winner will
play UC Santa Cruz at 1:00 on Sunday May 4th for the right to go the final
site on May 14-17 at Gustavus Adolphus in St Peter MN. Redlands has beaten
the defending NCAA Champions earlier this year as well as having beaten
the Slugs. Cal Lutheran has beaten Redlands twice as well as two other
top ten teams so the tennis both days should be amazing. We would love
to have as many of you as possible join us as we could really use your
support. Our team is growing daily but is still relatively young. We will
be severely tested but the team that survives will be battle tested for
the final site.
Thanks so much for the help and support from Duke
and Janet Parmelly and Annie Cohen at Ojai. We were well fed because of
their help and we really appreciate you being there for us. Thanks to
all of you that follow the team and we hope to have a huge crowd for regionals.
In case of rain we have indoor backup at Club Sport Pleasanton and I will
post directions in the event we have to go indoors.
Best wishes,
Coaches Bob and Nick and all the Slugs
 |
Coach Bob Hansen
Photo courtesy of USTA NorCal |
April 28, 2003
Coach Hansen to be inducted into the Northern California Tennis Hall of Fame
UCSC Head Men's Tennis Coach Bob Hansen will be
inducted into the Northern California Tennis Hall of Fame at the 2003
Bank of the West Classic at Stanford's Forbes Plaza on Thursday, July
24th.
Hansen started the tennis teaching program at UC
Santa Cruz in 1977 and got the campus to start a varsity squad three years
later. In the process he had to convince the school to become a Division
III NCAA school, which meant adding more sports. That done, Hansen won
NCAA team titles in 1989-95-96-98. He was declared Coach of the Decade
for the 1990s by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
"But it's all about the kids," says Hansen.
"It's the relationships you form. I had just as much fun on the way
up as I did being at the top. We had a 20-year reunion recently and it
was wonderful. I am blessed to have this job."
Joining Hansen in the 2003 class are former US Open
doubles winner Robin White, Inside Tennis Publisher William G. Simons
and award-winning umpire Joan Vormbaum.
Portions of this article provided courtesy of
the USTA NorCal Sectional Quarterly Newsletter.
April 24, 2003
Letter from Coach Hansen: Men's Tennis at the Ojai Invitational
Dear
Slug Tennis fans,
So sorry
that it has been so long since my last update. We are leaving shortly
for Ojai and the wonderful Div lll Regional Singles and Doubles championships.
This is an amazing tournament that is the envy of all other college tournaments.
It's been going over 100 years and has a rich history of class and professionalism.
The web site is www.ojaitennistourney.org and you can follow the progress of the over 1,500 total entrants on line.
We begin play on Friday early am and hopefully will still be at it come
Sunday.
We finished
a successful dual match season in LA beating two of our top regional rivals,
5-2 against Trinity and 7-0 against Pomona. We did suffer a loss to Redlands,
falling 3-4 in a well played match. Our region is very strong and evenly
matched this year. The top five teams all have wins against each other
and although it remains somewhat unclear I think UC Santa Cruz and Claremont
are the top teams going into regionals. We have put in a bid to host and
will get confirmation on Monday if this will happen. The regionals are
May 3 & 4 and depending on whether they send two or three teams to
our site we will either play on Sat May 3rd at 1:00 or Sunday May 4th
at 1:00 vs the winner of a Sat match. We would love to have as much support
as possible so we can keep our streak alive of having never lost a regional
qualifying match at home. Mark your calenders and I will confirm on Monday
as soon as we receive the final confirmation.
We seem
to be peaking at the right time and are getting strong efforts from the
entire lineup. It was nice to have the support of family and friends in
LA during our recent trip and I want to extend our thanks to all who joined
us. We have a wonderful group of young men on this years team and they
do a great job representing themselves and this University. Your support
and well wishes are greatly appreciated and we hope to see those of you
that can make it at our last home stand of the season.
Best
wishes,
Bob Hansen, Nick Cunningham and the Slug Tennis Team
 |
| UCSC
Sophomore Matt Bruener won his match on Monday playing in the #3 singles
spot. |
April 8, 2003
Men's Tennis loses at USF
San Francisco, CA -- The
Men's Tennis team lost to Divison I University of San Francisco on Monday
by a score of 2-5.
Playing at the Olympic Club
in San Francisco, UCSC collected wins at #3 and #4 singles, courtesy of
Sophomores Matt Bruner and Ben Bartels. UCSC also won at #2 doubles, as
Junior Brian Casey and Sophomore Bryce Parmelly won 8-6.
The event was a make-up of
a match that had originally been scheduled for February 19th, but had
been postponed due to rain.
With the loss, the teams
record falls to 6-5 with a 3-1 record against Division III opponents.
The team plays its next match
April 11 in Pomona against Trinity University.
Doubles
Lien/Fuller (USF) d. Bruner/Bartels (SC) 8-3
Casey/Parmelly (SC) d. Lippert/Elvik (USF) 8-6
Arneson/Pires De Almeida (USF) d. Templeton/Hasagawa (SC) 8-3
Singles
Pablo Pires De Almeida (USF) d. Brian Casey (SC) 7-5, 6-3
Axel Elvik (USF) d. Shane Templeton (SC) 6-4, 6-2
Matt Bruner (SC) d. Sean Dizon (USF) 6-3, 7-5
Ben Bartels (SC) d. Jon Lippert (USF) 6-4, 7-5
Ramoin Van Rillas (USF) Bryce Parmelly (SC) 6-4, 6-4
Christian Dyvik (USF) d. Justin Coupe (SC) 6-3, 6-1
 |
| UCSC Sophomore Andrew Cohen was one of two victorious UCSC players on Monday. |
March 10, 2003
UCSC -- On Monday, the Men's Tennis team lost to
visiting Emory University, 2-5 at the East Field Tennis Courts.
The match started poorly for UCSC, with the Banana
Slugs being swept in doubles matches.
Single match play was extremely competitive, with
all six matches going to three sets. At the #1 spot, Junior Brian Casey
won his match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. At #2, Brian's brother, Sophomore Kevin
Casey lost 4-6, 6-2, 2-6. At #3, Freshman Shane Templeman lost 1-6, 6-2,
2-6. At #4, Sophomore Andrew Cohen won 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. At #5, Sophomore
Matt Bruehner lost 4-6, 7-5, 1-6. And at #6, Sophomore Ben Bartels lost
5-6, 6-4, 4-6.
Emory, ranked #2 in the nation, last season became
the first visiting team to beat UCSC on its home courts since they were
built in 1988.
With the loss, the teams record falls to 6-4 with
a 3-1 record against Division III opponents.
The team plays its next match April 11 in Pomona
against Trinity University.
Letters from Coach Hansen
March 11, 2003
Dear Slug Tennis fans,
Emory is the only Div lll team that has beaten us
at home since our courts were built in 1988 and besides being a homecoming
for former Slug and current Emory Coach John Browing, it is becoming a
great rivalry. We won our third National Championship at Emory where we
played them in the final in 1996. We had never lost to them until last
year when they beat us at home. They have an incredible team! Every player
in the top 13 played at the National Junior Championships at Kalamazoo
and have wonderful junior backgrounds. We have only had one player in
our 26 year history that played in this event and we knew we were in for
a battle.
After losing the doubles point we locked into all
the singles matches. We won the first set at one and four singles but
dropped the first set in the remaining spots. By stepping up our offense
we battled back in each of the matches where we lost the first but dropped
both sets in the matches where we had won the first. All six singles went
to three sets! I was very proud of our fight and felt we had a chance
at every spot. Andrew Cohen leveled the match at one all with a victory
at four singles. He had lost 9 straight games in going down 0-3 in the
third before winning five straight games. He closed out the match 6-4
in the third. We lost the next two matches at two and three singles and
I feel that we allowed our opponents too many chances to take charge.
As both Kevin and Shane work on their attacking skills and control more
of the match I know they will be able to compete against any opponent.
At one singles Brian Casey beat one of the most offensive minded Div lll
singles players ever as he beat Mark Odgers 6-4,4-6,6-4. It was a great
win for Brian as this player has special talent! Matt Brunner was next
off and lost his first Div lll match of the season to a very crafty and
competitive player. It was a match I feel Matt could win with more work
on his offensive skills. Ben Bartels was last off and had a great battle
which he came up short in 6-4 in the third. In an interesting side note
the winner of the first set won all six singles matches.
I am very proud of the team and feel good that we
can be right in a match against a team of this caliber. I think they have
the most talented team in the country and it will be a fun and challenging
run at this years tournament. We have quite a long break before we are
back at it as we have finals at the end of this week and them spring break.
Our next set of matches will be in LA against regional
rivals Trinity, Redlands and Pomona the second weekend in April. Thanks
to all those that came out to support us and best wishes to all,
Bob, Nick and the Slugs
March 9, 2003
Dear Slug tennis fans,
So far it has been a great weekend! On Saturday we beat regional Div lll
rival Cal Lutheran 5-2 in a very well played match. It was nice to see
the team respond from a rough outing at Indoors with a very well played
match. We won at one and three doubles with solid play from Ben Bartels
and Matt Brunner at one doubles and Kevin Casey and Bryce Parmelly at
three doubles to secure the doubles point. In singles we got a great effort
from Kevin Casey at two singles in winning 6-3,6-3 against a very strong
opponent. Shane Templeman played very well at three singles defeating
a strong junior college transfer 6-1,6-4 and showing more aggressive play
inside the baseline. At five singles Matt Brunner continued his fine play
with a dominating performance. The final singles point came from Ben Bartels
who won 6-4,6-4 to close out the match. Brian Casey played very well at
one singles before falling to one of the top players in the country in
a closely contested match.
On Sunday we traveled to UC Davis to renew our UC
rivalry. We played very well at two and three doubles to set up a great
singles effort. Brian Casey and Shane Templeman won at two doubles 8-4
and Kevin Casey and Bryce Parmelly won at three doubles 9-7. In singles
Shane Templeman and Matt Brunner won by identical scores of 6-0,6-0. Againt
a quality team such as UC Davis who is top 20 in Div ll these are very
impressive scores. At two singles Kevin Casey showed his increased offensive
skills in defeating a fine player name Paul Dilloway 1-6,7-5,6-1. Kevin
was overpowered in the first set and then controlled more and more of
the points as the match progressed. Andrew Cohen played well with a 6-4,7-6
win at four singles and showed a great balance of passing shots and forcing
ground strokes. I was happy with how hard he worked and how focused he
was. Ben Bartels won a very solid match at six singles to complete the
7-2 team victory as he defeated Kikoli Novikov 6-3,4-6,6-0.
Tomorrow, Monday March 10th, we host the only Div
lll team to have ever beaten us at home on our courts which were built
in 1988. They were NCAA team finalists last year and are currently ranked
two in the country. Anyone who can join us is in for a great match which
will be at the East Fieldhouse at 2:00.
Best wishes and thanks for your support,
Bob Hansen, Nick Cunningham and the Slugs
January 21, 2003
Dear Slug Fans,
The 2003 season is officially underway. We just
returned home from playing the Broncos of Santa Clara University, a match
we lost 5-2. I was glad that we were able to play some extra players as
at this time of the season our lineup is still taking shape. In the top
three doubles matches we lost quite convincingly and spent most of the
matches on our heels. At four doubles Bryce Parmelly and Justin Coupe
won their match 8-6 behind aggressive net play and big serving. It was
nice to finish the double with a win and Bryce and Justin showed the other
teams what we want all of our doubles teams to do...close!!!
In singles Andrew Cohen was first off losing 6-2,
6-1 to a strong left hander, Taylor Bedilion. Andrew hit the ball well
but was unable to finish enough at net nor could he penetrate effectively
off the ground. Matt Brunner was next off with an impressive straight
set win over Rick Ruso of the Broncos. Matt was very steady throughout
and played with great poise and desire.
This match was followed by Kevin Casey dropping
a 6-2,6-3 decision to Francisco Zepponi at two singles putting the match
score at 1-3. Kevin needs to continue to take control of more points against
players at this level and I know he will continue to develop this part
of his game. In the remaining matches we were all in the third sets.
Brian Casey came back from down a break to win 6-3
in the third at one singles against the very talented Erich Chen. As always
Brian was very resourceful in defeating Erich for the first time. His
leadership and play at the top will be strong contributors to our success
this season. Freshman Shane Templeman fought back from losing the 1st
set to take a commanding 5-2 lead in the third against a fine player from
Argentina. After having three match points he lost an 8-6 tiebreaker to
decide the match. Shane needed to control more of the match in the end
as he found himself consistently on the defensive in the deciding moments
of the match.
Bryce Parmelly played a great first set and battled
back in the second. His senior opponent lifted his level in the third
to close out the match. With continued work on his serve and volley skills
Bryce will be a tough out as the season progresses.
Justin Coupe won easily in his exibition singles
match and is showing strong direction in his game.
Overall I felt like we showed real promise and played a much closer match
than in recent years against the Broncos. This group is very focused and
will grow from this match. Next up are two key Div lll rivals in Claremont
College and Linfield College. Both teams made the NCAA team tournament
last year and are two of the top teams in our region. We play a double
header against them with the match against Claremont at 9:30 and the match
against Linfield at 2:00 on Saturday February 8th at the East Fieldhouse
at UC Santa Cruz. Please come join us if you can as these are key matches
for out season.
Thanks so much to the Brunners, alumni and former NCAA national champion
Chad Andrews, Doug Fitty, Kathy Casey, Kellen Ali-Christy and the rest
of the Slug fans that made the trip. Your support is greatly appreciated.
I am attaching our schedule in hopes you will be
able to make some matches. Thanks again for your support and Go Slugs!
November 21, 2002
Dear Slug Tennis Fans,
Hope you are all doing well and that your year is
finishing on a high note. We have had a very productive fall program and
are looking forward to an exciting season. I will send you our schedule
as soon as it is finalized. As always we need to raise substantial funds
to run our program. We spent the entire funding given to us from the school
on our first trip to LA for the Omni tournament and so the rest of the
season will depend on our fundraising efforts. As most of you know we
run several tournaments, have an annual hit-a-thon, sell media guide adds
and then get help from our many alumni and boosters. This year we found
a wonderful new fund raiser through ESPN the magazine. If you send me
a check for $40 made out to the UC Santa Cruz Foundation along with your
address, phone number and email address you will receive a two year subscription
(52 issues) to ESPN the magazine and Slug tennis will get $30 of your
$40 payment. If you would also like a slug tennis T-shirt please make
the check for $60 and you will get this as well. The subscription makes
a great gift for any sport fan and if you send us someone else's name
and address with a check to UC Regents we will send them a subscription
with a gift card to announce your gift sent to you. I am amazed that they
could do this for such a nominal fee and it will help us a great deal.
Please help us take advantage of this great offer of support for Slug
Tennis. We have a great young team and along with the old coach we would
be most appreciative!! Thanks so much for all your care and support.
Send orders to:
Bob Hansen
OPERS East Fieldhouse UCSC
1156 High St
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Any questions call me at 831 459-4694
Thanks again and best wishes,
Coach Hansen and the Slugs
10/11/02
Dear Slug fans,
The 2002/2003 Slug Tennis campaign in off and running.
After a short preseason practice schedule we just returned from the Omni
Hotels, formerly Rolex, West Regional Championships where the Slugs sputtered,
recovered and roared to life. There are many impressions from our first
competitive outing but the top couple are that are region is very strong
this year and we are up to the challenge! This is a tournament that we
have dominated for many years. We have had as many as five of the final
eight in singles and three of the final four in doubles. This year after
completing two rounds in the expanded 48 singles draw there were only
three Slugs in the final 16, Brian and Kevin Casey and Matt Brunner. We
dropped two singles matches that were well within our reach as last year's
regulars Ben Bartels and Andrew Cohen lost to Freshmen from Redlands.
At several other spots we faced tough opponents and failed to advance.
After an intense team meeting we came to play on day two and three. All
three of the remaining main draw players advanced to the quarters giving
us the most of any team to reach that round. Matt Brunner soundly defeated
Cal Lutheran senior and the 7th seed Arif Hasan 6-0,6-3 before falling
to top seed All-American Slug superstar Brian Casey 6-3,6-3 in the quarters.
Kevin reached the quarters with an easy 1 and 1 victory over Chris Kan
of Claremont before falling to the three seed, a talented French player
from Cal Lutheran. In am match closer than the 6-3,6-1 score indicated,
it was obvious that Amir Marndy was a player of special talent.
After beating a strong Claremont starter from last
year in the opening round, Palmer Taylor was impressive in reaching the
semi finals of the second round backdraw. His work this summer paid off
with a much more consistent backcourt game that frustrated opponents.
Freshman Evan Markowitz also reached the semis of the second round backdraw
defeating a very solid freshman from Claremont that played the junior
nationals as the second ranked player from Hawaii. After losing to the
talented Marandy in the second round, Slug Freshman Shane Templeman swept
the backdraw in impressive fashion. In the first round backdraw Ben Bartles
won it all sweeping Slugs Josh Roach, Henry Hasegawa in three sets, and
Brice Parmelly in the finals. After a rough first day the Slugs dominated
both back draws.
In his semi final singles match Brain Casey played
beautifully in defeating Williams transfer David Frankel of Pomona College
6-4,6-4. Down 2-3 and 0-40 Brian battled back to hold and turned the momentum
of the match. Frankel looked stronger than last year when he played two
for the NCAA team champion team from Williams and it took a great effort
from Brian to beat him. In doubles the newly formed team of Brian and
Kevin Casey played very well in advancing to the final with and impressive
win over the two seeded team of Amir Marandy and Arif Hasan.
In the finals of both the singles and doubles with
a chance to advance to the Omni Small College National tournament the
Slugs struggled. Amir Marandy was too much for Brian on this day but as
usual Brain fought hard and raised the level of his game in the second
set making a wonderful match in a 6-1,6-4 defeat. There were many lessons
for Brian and the team and we have begun the work to close the gap already.
Brian is a wonderful leader and example to our program and this setback
will only serve to fuel his competitive fire. In the doubles final Kevin
played very well in his first real doubles action as he was a singles
specialist last season. His progress has been remarkable and I feel that
we will again be very competitive in doubles as the season progresses.
Although they lost to a talented Redlands team, both Brian and Kevin will
be solid in this years doubles lineup.
Next up for the Slugs will be the UOP Tiger Invitational
in a couple of weeks. Thanks to Annie Cohen and the Taylor's for her help
and support and to Slug Alumni Thomas Oechel and Jake Stevens for coming
out. Congratulations to the Slug women's team who not only had their first
ever finalists in either singles or doubles but won both events!
Coach Hansen
| 
• Basketball
• Basketball
