The Slugs made their annual pilgrimage to So Cal last week, and came away with two wins and three losses. That would be a good thing if they had scheduled five nationally ranked teams, but they only had three, and you can guess which three matches they lost. The two wins over Oxy and Chapman were completely dominant (as expected), and will be enough to keep them in the top 20 (especially with the mosh pit that’s happening immediately behind them). Regardless, they can’t feel great from the trip, and the following discussion only focuses on the matches against Amherst, Redlands, and P-P.
The Bad
– Elias Scandalis singles. I’ve been hard on this guy previously, so I’m not gonna get into this too much, but Scandalis went out with a whimper against Lipscomb, Weichert, and Dale.
– Doubles depth. What happened to the Team of Destiny being solid at #2? Deguchi and Littlejohn went 0-3 in ranked matches on the week, and couldn’t come up with the big win against Redlands when a win would have been a total game-changer. #3 dubs also went 0-3. Going back to SBWW, the Slugs are now 1-11 at #2 and #3 doubles against ranked teams. It feels like a long time since they won 2 and 3 against Whittier.
– Clutch play. The Slugs went 0-6 in 3rd sets and tiebreakers over the week. Granted, four of those are 10-pointers, but they could’ve turned an 8-1 beatdown to P-P into a more respectable-appearing 6-3 loss. More importantly, a close win at #2 or #3 doubles against Redlands could have forced a 3rd set for the match between Littlejohn and Cummins (as opposed to the 10-pointer, which Cummins won). The Slugs also went 1-4 in 3-setters over SBWW, so this is an ongoing problem.
The Good
– Elias Scandalis doubles. As much crap as I’ve given Scandalis, he and Goetz really picked it up in doubles this week. They nabbed an 8-0 victory (How do you get broken 4 times in a row?) over Redlands on Monday and backed it up with another nice win over P-P. If they had been able to hold onto that double-break lead against CMS, they would be in the discussion for a NCAA doubles berth. Maybe a win over CLU could push them back in the mix, but right now, they’re on the outside looking in. Still, it was a phenomenal week for the Slugs’ #1 dubs.
– Kyle Richter singles. The transfer had a really solid week despite picking up two singles losses. He took a pair of 4-stars to 3-sets in Einbinder and Maassen, and had a nice win over another 4-star (Parker Wilson) against Redlands. Not too shabby.
Moving forward, UC Santa Cruz has just one more match against a ranked team this year, a neutral-site match against Cal Lu on the 13th. After that, they will ramp up for the Ojai, accept their Pool B bid and hope for the best. If they can get their doubles clicking and keep improving, I could see them beating Cal Lu or even Redlands/P-P on the right day, but right now, it looks like they’re the 8th best team in the West (or 7th, if you want to argue about Tyler).
Wanted to say that Maassen is the classiest tennis player I have ever competed against in college tennis or junior tournaments. In doubles he overruled his partner’s call on match point, that I honestly probably agreed with, even though Soper and I were already walking to the net.
In singles he corrected his initial call on his own after thinking about it, as well as actually calling a ball out on himself after I gave him a point on a ball I couldn’t see.
This guy deserves all the recognition he can get and I wish him the best of luck in the rest of his season.