April 16, 2004

Dear Slug Tennis Fans,

On Easter Sunday we played our rain out against UC Davis and our team played like champions. UC Davis is a wonderful rival and we often compete for similar recruits. The have a very good young team, but our experience showed as we dominated the match 9-0 with the loss of only one set.

We set the tone with the doubles where we swept all three matches with relative ease winning 8-4 at one, 8-3 at two, and 8-4 at three doubles. Kellen Ali-Christie and Matt Brunner continue to improve the over solidness of their doubles approach and with Kellen moving more and both Matt and Kellen returning better, they are competing well each match. At two doubles, Matt Seeberger put on a return clinic and with Shane Templeman moving effectively to pressure the first volley they were poised to break every game. Both Matt and Shane are fine athletes, and as they learn to move and be more aggressive they will become better and better. At three doubles, we had a first in Slug tennis history as Brian and Kevin Casey defeated Kyle and Casey McMakin in an all brother match. Kevin and Brian are really playing well and are really enjoying the chance to compete with each other in their final season together.

In singles, we were also very solid. Brian Casey won 6-2,6-4 and continued to improve his attacking game. Matt Seeberger hit a barrage of winners but missed more than usual in a 7-6,7-6 win. He looked confident throughout and was very level headed at all times. Shane was dominant in his match, moving well and controlling the length of his ground strokes. Kevin was his relentless self winning 6-o,6-0 at four singles and playing at an extremely high level. Matt Brunner showed real courage and grit in battling back from a 1-5 deficit in the third and faced 4 match points before winning 6-3,1-6,7-6. It was nice to see him rise to the occasion. At six, Andrew Cohen competed well and used his improving serve to set up his big forehand for many short points. He is on a roll, as that was his 11 straight singles win.

Thanks so much to all of our great fans that shared Easter with us. The Seebergers and coach Phil Cello, the Ali-Christies and coaches Tom and Jen Issacs, the Templemans, the Caseys, a whole pack of Hansens and all of the rest of our great fans. We play tomorrow in San Luis Obispo at 9:00 at Cuesta College again Northern Arizona and at 2:30 at Cal Poly against Cal Poly. These are our final dual matches before we play the Div lll regional individual championships the following week in Ojai. We just move up to #3 in the National rankings so I hope we will be able to host regionals on May 1 and 2.

Talk to you soon, and Go Slugs!
Coach Hansen

P.S. Thanks again for your continued support and keep a lookout for an upcoming email updates!
(Click here to sign up for email updates.)