February 20, 2004

Dear Slug Tennis Fans,

It is late and we are hosting a fund raising tournament tomorrow, so this will necessarily be brief. We made an early decision to take the match indoors since Washington and Lee made a long trip to play us and the weather was very unsettled this morning. Although it turned out to be a wonderful day in Santa Cruz, and we sincerely missed our great fans, the Slugs prevailed in a hard fought victory indoors at Club Sport Fremont.

With four indoor courts, we started the top four singles matches with the five and six singles starting outside. We were forced to open with singles as we had limited indoor court availability. The first match off went to W&L as Jon Malooly defeated Kevin Casey 6-1,6-2 at number four singles. Kevin has been adding offense to his game and has shown great improvement in all offensive categories but has had trouble blending offense with his old reliable steady mode. I am certain of the long range benefit but in the short run there are some tactical challenges to blending his new skills. His opponent played very steady tennis and attacked at opportune moments. I know Kevin will bounce back and learn a great deal from this match.

Next off was brother Brian Casey who played a very competitive and solid match at one singles winning by a score of 6-4,6-3. Brian was steady but attacked enough to keep his opponent off balance. At this point three matches were entering the third set as Shane Templeman's match was moved indoors after being rain delayed outside. Shane promptly closed out the match with steady yet aggressive play 6-1,6-3 to put the Slugs up 2-1. Shane is serving well and attacking more effectively as his game continues to improve.

Next off was Matt Brunner who played a dominating third set to win 6-4,1-6,6-1. Matt attacked well and served beautifully at times, but I was most proud of how he kept his head in the match even when his game slipped in the second set. Andrew Cohen iced the match from down a break in the third to win 6-1,4-6,6-4. His serve continues to improve, and his attacking games was brilliant at times. With more work on his volleys, he will be a rough match up all year.

Matt Seeberger played an interesting, and at times, brilliant match to conclude the 5-1 victory winning 7-5,4-6,6-3. He served extremely well, and his improved volleys were the difference in the match as he was able to win many easy points with aggressive approaches and steady winning volleys. By continuing to develop his offensive skills Matt will create more and more match up problems. He is a brilliant and natural counter attacker with great variety but he can develop into a player that can take you off the court regularly.

We were able to only complete one doubles match, but it was an impressive performance by Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie at one doubles. Their solid play led to an 8-3 victory at one doubles.

We are off to the ITA National Indoor Championships next week so today's match was a great opportunity. Washington and Lee will also be at indoors as the 8th ranked team in the country. More details to follow. Thanks so much to all the Slug fans that made the match. We appreciate your support more than you know.

All the best and Go Slugs!
Coach Hansen

P.S. Thanks again for your continued support and keep a lookout for an upcoming email update with an opportunity to support Slug Tennis and get some great looking Slug Gear! (Click here to sign up for email updates.)