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Dear Slug Tennis fans, We had another great weekend at the ITA National Indoor Team Championships! It seems like home returning to St Peter MN as we are making our annual trek and for the fourth consecutive time we advanced to the final. Our first round opponent this year was fellow public school Mary Washington of Virginia. I respect their coach and program a great deal as they are always in the hunt and compete hard in every match. We were able to win at one and three doubles with Jared Kamel and Marc Vartabedian winning 8-4 at one and Max Ortiz and Colin Mark-Griffin winning 8-6 at three to give us a 2-1 lead going into singles. Colin got us on the board first in singles with a 6-4,7-6 (6) win at three singles. After losing a close one at two singles Jared lit is up in the third to give us our fourth point with a 6-2, 6-7, 6-0 over a very strong opponent in John James. Our final two points in this 6-3 team match came from Max Liberty-Point at four singles who won 7-5, 6-1 and Marc Vartabedian who won 6-2.6-3 at five singles. Over all a great effort against a spirited opponent, as the first round is always tough! Round two pitted the Slugs against a very strong Washington University team from St Louis. We played them in the first round of last years NCAA Team Championship, which they hosted, and we were very impressed with their quality. This year they returned their entire team and added two very strong freshmen. We got off to a slow start as we went down a break of serve in all three doubles. I was very impressed with our composure as we fought back to win at two doubles with Max Liberty-Point and Ilya Gendelman 8-6 and at three with Max and Colin to win 8-5. At this juncture in the match Marc and Jared had broken back and were serving at 7 all. After a very long game with each team holding several game points we were broken and Wash U had their top server up trying to close it out. I was super impressed with the composure of our most veteran team as Jared and Marc played an exceptional game to break and force a tiebreaker to decide the point. A high quality breaker was played and we faced a match point with Jared serving at 5-6. Marc made a huge poach off a very good return to level at 6 and Jared came up with a big volley to give Marc an opportunity to serve it out. Marc delivered with a fantastic wide service winner to win the match and put us in commanding position up 3-0 after the doubles! Every singles match was hotly contended! Colin rang the bell first again with a 6-3, 6-4 win at three singles and Max Ortiz iced it with a great win at two singles where he won 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 over last season’s top WU player Charlie Cuttler. Colin played super solid and very big off the ground and Max played some of his most complete and solid attacking tennis in his outstanding effort. Our final point came from Marc Vartabedian at five singles where he beat a very strong player without dropping serve 7-7, 6-2. Jared lost a hard fought three setter at one singles against last year’s NCAA singles finalist John Watts and Silvio Chiba lost a breaker for the third in another very well played match. In the finals we faced host Gustavus Adolphus, a common Slug opponent in both indoor and outdoor national tournaments. Notoriously good at home on their fast indoor courts the Gusties advanced to the final with a 6-3 win over last year’s NCAA team finalist Emory University. Gustavus had swept the doubles in their first two matches and we knew we were in for a battle! We were outplayed at both 2 and 3 doubles losing 8-4 and 8-2 but got on the board with an outstanding effort by Jared and Marc at one doubles where they won 8-4 to go undefeated for the weekend! I am super proud of the way they have continued to improve and follow up on their undefeated season last year playing third doubles. So far this year they have gone undefeated in dual matches at one doubles against Div lll opponents in 8 matches. Heading into singles down 1-2 Colin again got us on the board winning his third straight match in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. Jared battled hard at one singles but lost in three while Max Ortiz dropped a hard straight set match at two singles. Down 2-4 Max Liberty-Point kept us in the match with a strong 6-4, 6-4 win at four singles. Needing both Marc and Ilya Gendelman to win to complete the comeback the Gusties clinched the victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win at five singles. Ilya Gendelman won a solid match 6-4, 6-4 to make the final score 4-5 and give the Gusties their fourth ITA National Indoor Championship. It is always fun to play in front of their strong and supportive crown in an environment where they are extremely comfortable. We were all amazed at how well they returned and hit ground strokes on such fast courts! Special thanks to Todd and Cindy Mark-Griffin for coming for support and the fine dinner they provided. Our next match is at home against Swarthmore College on Wed March 12th at 2:00. Hope you can join us and thanks to all of your for your wonderful support. Best wishes, Coach Hansen and the Slugs