| October 3, 2006
Dear Slug Family As coaches we are extremely excited about how our boys played this weekend at the Fall ITA Tournament! We were driven, committed, and fought extremely hard in both doubles, singles, front, and back draws. To see the level of growth and maturity already taking place in this year’s team, by returners as well as new team members, is what makes this coaching job so rewarding. Though most of our team faced early hard-fought losses in the first couple rounds, they bounced back as we had a Slug-dominated first and second round back draw tournament. Some of these highlights include Max Ortiz and Max Liberty-Points’s efforts in winning their singles back draws, each beating tough regional opponents who we will face all year. Both Max’s growth as players is not surprising with the amount of time and commitment these boys are showing not only on game day but also on the practice court. Other great results consisted of first round victories by Ilya Gendelman, Brian Pybas, Kian Fattahi, Aaron Morrill, and Marc Vartabedian before falling in the second round matches. Like previously stated what was most impressive about these boys efforts was there maturity and hunger to bounce back and win their next round of matches; including Colin Mark-Griffin and Julian Sunn who lost close first round matches. In the main draws Jared Kamel, Alex VIllilobos, and Jefferey Fong were the three to make through the first two rounds and play third round matches. All three showed great composure in getting through Friday’s matches and fought extremely hard in Saturday Morning’s matches. Unfortunately, while battling through a shoulder injury, Alex Villilobos fell to a very talented new Claremont player. He is taking the steps needed to resolve this injury situation, and will hopefully be back on the court soon. Jeffery Fong played one of the tougher players from Claremont University, and was extremely close to an upset loosing the second set in a close tiebreaker. His fight and grit are evident on the court and we are excited to see his game progress. Jared Kamel was our lone semi finalist and showed his ability to battle against the best in our region by extending top seed Bill Ellison of Claremont before falling 7-6,6-3. Jared has added strength and offense to his rock solid game. One of the most impressive result of the tournament came in doubles as freshmen Brian Pybas and Marc Vartabedian advanced to the doubles final beating several top ranked teams. In the quarters they beat the top seeded Claremont duo of Larry Wang and Gui Schils who were ranked one in the country last season in the mid season rankings. |