UCSC Update: New Faces to Fill Slug Roster
Three months removed from their third D3 men’s title in the last five years, the UC-Santa Cruz men have a decidedly different look.
That’ll happen when you graduate your top five singles players.
Gone are seniors Jared Kamel, Max Liberty-Point, Colin Mark-Griffin, Max Ortiz and Ilya Gendelman. Replacing them on the roster are six fresh faces — Erich Koenig, Erik Rosner, Andre Halabi, Sam Rodgers, Parker Larson and Josh Mason. As for replacing them in the Top-5, well that’s still yet to be decided.
Junior Brian Pybas and senior Marc Vartabedian are the only sure things in the Slugs’ lineup-Pybas was a NCAA singles and doubles semifinalist last season, while Vartabedian played at No. 3 in singles and No. 2 in doubles. Silvio Chiba is next on last year’s depth chart, but Chiba rarely saw the court last season and still has some sizeable question marks. Chiba has as recently as this summer lost to both Larson and Halabi. Koenig, ranked 164 in the country in his class, might be the only semi-lock in the lineup as the highest ranked incoming recruit.
“He’s rattled some good players this summer,” said Banana Slugs head coach Bob Hansen.
Rosner, a San Diego product, jumped into the mid 200s in the country over the summer, but enters the season as a two-star recruit. This, despite the fact that he downed former Slug Matt Seeberger, one of the all-time great D3 tennis players, in straight sets during a men’s Open this offseason.
“The story is that Seeberger hurt his ankle at Ojai,” Hansen said, “and was just coming back from that. But he said [Rosner] is talented and raw.”
Halabi, a three-star recruit from Irvine ranked just above No. 400, Rodgers of Arroyo Grande, Larson and junior college transfer Josh Mason round out the rest of Hansen’s incoming class-which he expects could add one or two more this spring.
To date, Hansen is “pleasantly surprised” with his defending champs.
“There’s going to be really high expectations,” he said. “Everyone is chomping at the bit to get to casino online us. We’ll be green, we’ll be up and down. But I think we’ll be better than people think.”
Simhadri, Baldua Double Up at Los Gatos S&RC
In a field of 250, Viswajit Simhadri and Ronak Baldua were the lone two-time winners at the first-ever Los Gatos Junior Open and Novice Tennis Tournament, held Aug. 17-21 at the Los Gatos Swim and RC. The tournament, online casino which included competitors seven years of age to 18, was coupled with a players lounge that fit the demo-complete with ping pong tables and an X-Box 360 with Guitar Hero.
Simhardri collected a pair of titles with a 7-6(5), 6-4 effort in the boys’ 16s singles final against No. 1 seed Derek Tzeng, then paired with Sriman Kolachalam for a straight set 6-4, 6-4 win in the boys 16s doubles final. Baldua took home a boys’ 12s singles and doubles final in dominant fashion including a 6-1, 6-2 win against Alvin Cheong in the singles championship match and a 6-1, 6-0 straight-setter with partner Sohil Singh in the doubles title match.
“It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to doing it again next year,” said Los Gatos SRC director of tennis Vince Russo.
Singles champions included Andrew Malozsak (B18s), Sreyas Kolachalam and John Dobrota (B14s), Daniel Berestov (B12s), Samuel Hales (B10s), Melissa Kobayakawa (G18s), Dora Tzeng (G16s), Kalyani Narayan and Kelly Klein (G14s), Lisa Swain and Anna Campana (G12s) and Yasmine Ramadan (G10s).
Forever Young at Sunnyvale Tennis Club
If you’re eligible to play in the Sunnyvale Tennis Center’s Tennis Forever event this October, chances are the first time you picked up a racket, Harry S. Truman — the 33rd U.S. President — was still in office.
The site will host a men’s and women’s team doubles event for players 70 and older on Oct. 9, beginning at 9 a.m. The event will include two men’s and women’s brackets-including 6.5-and-under combo and 7.5-and-under combo. Teams must include a minimum of four players, each of whom must be born before Jan. 1, 1940.
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