Slugs Open Against UC Davis

The UCSC women’s tennis team opened up their season at Divison I UC Davis. They began the match off playing doubles with Chayla Furlong and Kyla Rowe playing number one against Jenna Kappel and Herzyl Legaspi (UCD).  Chayla and Kyla played incredibly well and showed a lot of character and fight on the court. This was Kyla’s first collegiate match and showed great poise on the court. The match went down to the wire with Kappel and Legaspi closing it out 8-6 in the end.

At two doubles, the team of Angel Zabala and Lauren Tisdale faced a very strong team of Robin Guier and Desiree Stone (UCD).  It took a little while for Angel and Lauren to settle into the match, but they made Guier and Stone earn every point of the match. Angel and Lauren lost 2-8, but still played well together and came together as a doubles team towards the end. 

The third doubles team had a great match and some amazing points in losing a close match.  Jessica Ruth and Emily Cook played a talented team of Emma Shapiro and Anita Atharate (UCD).  Every point had Emily scrambling to get to balls that seemed impossible to touch. Jessica was hitting her famous roller that no one can get to, making Davis earn every point they won. But in the end, Shapiro and Atharate ended up winning the match 5-8.

After doubles, the singles got underway. The Slugs put up a great fight in singles but were overpowered in the end.  Angel played number one for the Slugs against Guier and fought her well, losing 2-6, 0-6.  At number two singles, Jessica played very hard and had a close match against Stone who pulled it out 4-6, 3-6.  Marjorie Youn played three singles for the Slugs and had a very competitive match against Legaspi losing 1-6, 0-6.  Four singles was Chayla who fought through long points and rallies against Kappel but came up short, losing 1-6, 1-6.  In her first singles match of her college career, Kyla was composed and played very well against a tough five singles opponent in Phillips, losing 1-6, 3-6.  At six singles, Emily ran down every ball and forced her opponent, Shapiro, to earn every single point in her 1-6, 0-6 win.

Despite losing 7-0 to Davis, the slugs played well and fought hard.  They showed a lot of heart, courage, and fight against a strong Division I opponent.  Up next is an entire weekend of matches starting on February 9^th against Mills College at Mills, Feb 10^th against San Jose State at San Jose State, and Feb 11^th against the Berkeley Club team at UCSC.  Thank you to our family and friends who came out to support us in our first match that started our journey on the road to the elite eight of nationals.