February 8, 2004
Dear Slug Tennis Fans,
It was a great weekend for Slug tennis! On Sunday February 8th we were able
to play both our first and second teams against Univ of Pacific in Stockton
and Dominican College at home. Against a very good UOP team, which is currently
ranked 70 in the country Div l, we had a dogfight from the beginning to the
end. At three doubles we got a great effort again from Shane Templeman
and Matt Seeberger who won 8-4. Matt is returning agressively and consistently
and Shane is continuing to be more aggressive at the net. With both players
serving well they are quite dominant. We were up early at one doubles with
Matt Brunner and Kellen Ali-Christie serving well and returning
solidly. As the match progressed, we lost composure and started pressing eventually
falling 8-6. At this point we were down 4-6 with the UOP team serving at 40-0
at number 2 doubles. Early jitters led to some tight play early but Brian
Casey and Bryce Parmelly played the end of the set beautifully to
come back and win 9-7 giving the Slugs the doubles point.
Against most teams, I feel our advantage lies in singles but the foreign player
dominated teams, such as UOP, are always tough in singles. The first match
off was Brian Casey at one singles who played a tremendous German player named
Lennart Maack who dominated from the baseline with a wonderful blend of offense
and defense. Brain fought bravely but went down 6-1,6-0. Next off was Matt
Brunner who hit the ball aggressively off the ground but was unable to penetrate
the defense of Nichlas Otte in a 6-3,6-0 loss. Balls that would have been off
the court against most opponents came back and Matt needed to finish more from
the net. Down 1-2 The Slugs fought back. Next off the court was Andrew Cohen
who played very solid tennis throughout and dominated with big forehands and
aggressive serving. His 6-1,7-5 win tied the match at 2-2.
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| Andrew Cohen |
Next off was Freshmen Matt Seeberger who continually frustrated his talented opponent
with great court coverage, solid passing shots, and a mix of powerful ground strokes
and well timed advances to the net. Matt posted a hard fought 6-3,6-2 win over
Vladimir Zdraukovic to give us a 3-2 lead with two matches remaining.
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| Matt Seeberger |
Shane Templeman got down 3-0
two breaks early and looked to have no answer to his opponents devastating forehand.
I was proud of the way Shane adjusted and down 2-5 appeared in control with a
solid game plan. He battled back to level at 5-5 before winning the first set
7-5 in the tiebreaker and holding off several set points. He tenacity set the
tone for the second set where Shane took control and iced the victory with a 7-5,
6-3 win.
Kevin Casey battled back after dropping the first
set to reach a third. I was proud of the continued development of his attacking
skills but he lacked his trademark consistency in the third and lost 6-4,2-6,6-3
to a solid yet aggressive baseliner in Alan Kelley.
Overall is was a very impressive victory and a wonderful reward for all our hard
work. There is still much to do but early season victories such as this show
real promise for future success.
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| Shane Templeman |
In our second team match against Dominican College we dominated from the outset.
Justin Coupe led the charge at one singles winning 6-3,6-1. Henry Hasegawa
won 6-2, 6-3 at two singles and we did not drop a game in victories by Marco
Diaddezio, Michael Kaiser, Joe Scott and Dan Klein.
At one doubles Justin Coupe and Brian Batsel won 8-2.
Next up for the Slugs in our home Div lll opening match against a fine team from
Virginia, Washington and Lee who are preseason ranked 7th in the country. This
match will be played on Friday Feb 20th and we would love to have as much support
as we can. Circle your calenders for this great home match before we leave for
National Indoors the following Thursday.
Thanks again for all the wonderful fan support as we had many parents join us
for this weekend's matches. Great to see former Slugs -- Ray Miller, an
NCAA All-American and NCAA doubles finalist along with former player and Assistant
Coach and NCAA doubles champion Nick Cunningham.
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.)
Best wishes,
Coach Hansen