May 4, 2004

Dear Slug Tennis Fans,

We are headed to Maine!!!!!! The Slugs proved themselves up to the task beating the number four and two ranked teams in the country. The two teams were Redlands and Claremont who went down 6-1 and 7-0 respectively! It was a great weekend of tennis with our entire team responding with championship quality effort in both matches. These wins bring our season record to 25-4 and give us a big head of steam going to the final site.

Against Redlands we won at one and three doubles to secure the point. The Casey boys continue to dominate at three doubles and Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie iced things with a great 9-7 win over the top doubles team in our region. In singles, freshmen sensation Matt Seeberger, who moved to the top spot after his win at Ojai, was first off with a 6-3,6-2 win over Brian Murphy. He was followed by Matt Brunner who dominated at five singles with a 6-3,6-4 win. Brian Casey iced the win with a 6-3,6-0 win over Michael Thoresz who had really pushed him the distance in a recent match at Ojai. With the match over Shane Templeman and Kevin Casey won their matches by scores of 7-5,6-2 and 6-4,6-0 to give the Slugs our six points. Andrew Cohen fell in a tough matchup to Sean Dolan 6-3,6-4. Redlands had a wonderful season and it is always a pleasure to battle this fine team.

Against Claremont, our top doubles team of Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie led the way beating another top regional doubles team 8-1 playing their best tennis of the year. The Casey boys followed up with a 8-5 win at three to ice the doubles point. In singles we were relentless! First off was Andrew Cohen who played with great intensity winning 6-3,6-0 at six singles. Shane Templeman was next off avenging his only regional loss by beating David Oehm 6-4,6-1. It was great to see Shane attack this challenge and play solidly throughout the match. Brian Casey delivered the clinching blow by defeating his opponent 6-3,6-0 to ice the match. He was followed by Matt Seeberger who came back from a bad stomach and loss of his first set to win 1-6,6-3,6-2. In the end, he showed the form that led us to move him to the top spot as he rolled to victory flashing many winners. Kevin Casey beat a strong opponent in Eric Chow who had beaten him badly in the juniors. Kevin prevailed 7-5,6-4. Matt Brunner came back from a 1-5 deficit in the second set to win 6-3,7-6 and complete the shutout.

Based on our strong showing at Ojai and Regionals we were rewarded with three singles players and one doubles team selected for the NCAA individual tournament. Representing the Slugs in singles will be Matt Seeberger, Brian Casey and Kevin Casey. In doubles Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie will compete. We are the two seed in the NCAA team tournament, and I am attaching the draw. We will meet Mary Washington College of Virginia in the first round who went 15-3 on the season.

We will fly out on next Monday with the tournament beginning on Wednesday. We will be staying at the tournament hotel which is the Hilton Garden Inn-Auburn Riverwatch. Their number is 207 784-4433.

The official web site for the tournament is http://www.bates.edu/pubbates/ncaa-tennis.xml

Thanks so much to all our great Slug fans!!!!!! It was so nice to feel the home town support at regionals. We had many family members, team members past and present, and our great soccer teams there to support us. Special thanks to the Brunners and Annie Cohen for feeding us and keeping us hydrated. We love and appreciate all your great support. Thanks so much to Jerry Lynch for all his special help and to Dr Richard Seigel for his support. On to Maine.....

Coach Hansen and Coach Taylor

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