3/16/19
ARC-2 UC Santa Cruz-7
Overall: 8-2 Conference: 5-0

Beavers Fall in Tough Battle Against Slugs

The Beavers took on NCAA DIII powerhouse, the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs in their 2nd match of the season against NCAA four-year competition. ARC fell just short, but not without some amazing tennis and awesome competition on the UCSC courts. The doubles action was fast and furious. Stephen Guenard/Sam Hall took the court as the #1 team for the Beavers against the DIII #23 nationally ranked tandem of Ryan Dugan/Chad Leduff of UCSC. Guenard/Hall took the fight to the slugs. Trading breaks early, and then staying on serve through the match until the tiebreak at 7-7. In the breaker the Slugs came up big and finished the doubles sweep with a 7-2 victory.

In the singles Kodiji (#3) and Erwin (#5) each earned huge victories for the Beavers. Kodiji played a very clean and physical match against Slug #3, Kris Harris, closing out the match 6-3, 6-4. Erwin fought back from 6-2, 3-0 down against Yaroslav Yanin, to take the 2nd set and play a tremendous match-tiebreak, closing it out 10-8 on a big tee serve. Other singles highlights included Guenard (#1) pushing the #2 nationally ranked Slug #1 player, Leduff, to the limit. Guenard served for the 1st set, before losing it 7-5. In the 2nd set he was up an early break, but eventually Leduff found another gear and closed out the 2nd set 6-3. It was a great day of competition for the Beavers and, according to Coach Bo Jabery-Madison, it will help the team down the road. "These types of matches are exactly what we need at this stage of the season. When each match outcome is up for grabs, you learn to compete and perform under pressure. In our last two matches (Chabot and UC Santa Cruz) each match was winnable or losable. We were a slight favorite against Chabot and a slight underdog today (against Santa Cruz), but every outcome was up in the air. These kinds of matches will help prepare us for the postseason, when that will be the case in each dual team match."

The Beavers are now 8-2 on the season, with both losses coming to four-year universities. They will take on the Bear Cubs from Santa Rosa Junior College, in the first round of the conference playoffs on Tuesday, March 19th, at home (Gold River Sports Club).