UC Santa Cruz

The UC Santa Cruz Women’s tennis team saw their season come to an end on Saturday as they fell 5-3 to Claremont. At #4 singles Megan Sweeney was leading 4-0 in the third set when the match was suspended. The final score really does not given an indication of just how close this match was, making the final outcome disappointing. Although the Slugs were unable to advance to Nationals, their effort during the entire season was of National Championship caliber.

The highlights of the match occurred in doubles as we started beautifully at #2 and #3. Both teams jumped out to 5-0 leads by playing smart, aggressive, confident tennis. Kelly Kerr and Chayla Furlong played their best match of the season at #3 winning 8-2. Angel Zabala and Megan Sweeney held on for a 8-6 lead at #2. Seniors Erika Villalobos and Katie Frick fell behind early at #1 and clawed back from 3-6 to even the match at 6-6. After CMS held serve for 7-6, UCSC was up 40- love in their service game and were poised to even the match at 7-7. It was not to be as Claremont fought back for a 8-6 win.

Singles began with the UCSC up 2-1. Erika Villalobos was first off, winning 6-1,6-2 at #2 singles. After losing the first set, Angel Zabala and Marjorie Youn both took 5-4 leads in the second set but each fell 7-5. The team score was now tied as the remaining matches were all in the third set. I give full credit to the CMS players for their effort as we were defeated 6-1 at both #1 and #3 singles to clinch the match for the Athenas