UC Santa Cruz Athletics
ITA West Regionals
Slugs Roll to Dual Titles at Wilson ITA West Regional
10/7/2008 8:15:00 PM | Men's Tennis
What an amazing weekend! From top to bottom our team played with great courage and passion and it showed in our outstanding results! We have three new All-American selections as we captured both the singles and doubles championships in our highly contested Wilson ITA West Regional Championship hosted by Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont College.
After day one the field of 64 singles players was down to 16 and 8 of them were Slugs! I was so proud of our seniors as all five advanced along with Sophomores Silvio Chiba and Donald James and Junior Marc Vartabedian. Our only freshman, David Hutton, was down about his results but was reminded by our seniors that when they were freshmen none of them were still in on day 2! Donald James defeated Cal Lutheran's top player Paul Wetterholm and a very good Claremont player in Drew Sabater to advance. Silvio defeated the 13th seed from Cal Lutheran to reach a spot in the final 16 while Marc defeated the 15th seed from Claremont to advance. Other than the high quality of our overall play another impressive early round win came from Ilya Gendelman who defeated a Div l transfer from Redlands named Cameron Spearman in a well played 6-1,6-2 victory.
Our round of 16 matchups proved very challenging as only three of our players advanced. Jared Kamel was in top form in defeating team mate and doubles partner Marc Vartabedian 6-2,6-2 after losing only two games in his first two matches! Max Liberty-Point crushed Matt Liebman of Redlands 6-2,6-3 and Colin Mark-Griffin advanced with a three set win over Michael Reading also of Redlands. Max Ortiz dropped a heartbreaker to defending tournament champion Mikey Lim of Claremont in a wonderfully well played three set match.
In the quarterfinals Colin defeated the top seed Larry Wang of Claremont in straight sets showing the form we all know him capable of! Colin did a great job blending defense and offense in defeating this amazing and highly ranked opponent. In another hard fought battle, Max Liberty-Point defeated Mikey Lim. Max found himself up a set and 5-5 when the match was delayed due to rain. After the delay, Lim managed to break serve and push the match to a third set. In the third Max found his form and finished the match in dominating fashion. In our third Quarterfinal, Jared Kamel was matched up against the unfamiliar freshman from Claremont, Robert Erani. Although Jared was in great form, Erani was on fire and won the match in straight sets. Jared competed extremely well throughout the entire match, but it was Erani's day.
Unfortunately for us, Max Liberty-Point and teammate Colin Mark-Griffin were matched against each other, leaving no chance for an all Slug final. It was a well contested Semifinal with both players giving full effort, but Max was just too good, taking the match and the right to represent the Slugs in the final by a score of 6-2 6-1. In the Final, Max faced the 4th seed, Clifford Yook. The 1st set was all Liberty-Point with him dominating from all areas of the court. The score was 6-1 in about 15 minutes with a flawless display of tennis that left the crowd astonished. In the 2nd, Yook found his form and forced Max down a break. Although down, Max kept positive and managed to break back twice with Yook serving for the set. This forced the second set into a tiebreaker which Max managed to win, taking the match and the title. A great effort by all Slugs, and a great achievement for Max Liberty-Point.
The doubles was just as good for the Slugs as the singles. All teams showed great signs of improvements. The young team of Silvio Chiba and Ryan Sass started us off with a great win over an experienced Pomona-Pitzer team before falling to another tough team from Redlands. The Slugs found themselves with three teams in the Quarterfinals. The first Quarterfinal was between 2 slug teams, and seniors Ilya Gendelman and Max Liberty-Point showed their experience over Juniors Ulrich Capaul and Shaun Herry to take the 1st Semifinal spot. Jared Kamel and Marc Vartabedian would join them in the Semifinal with a clean victory over Meyer and Tagliarino of Pomona-Pitzer. As in the singles, the Slugs found themselves, again, with 2 out of 4 in the Semifinals, although this time there was a possibility of an all Slug Final! In the 1st Semifinal, Kamel and Vartebedian showed great fighting spirit to defeat the team of Mikey Lim and Ben Wiener of Claremont. In the 2nd Semifinal, Singles champion Max Liberty-Point and Senior Ilya Gendelman were up against the National Championship team of Larry Wang and Gui Schils. Max and Ilya showed no sign of intimidation as they dominated the match with a 8-3 victory. They would now join their teammates in the Final.
The final was a highly entertaining display of tennis with both teams giving it 100%. Although close, the team of Max Liberty-Point and Ilya Gendelman managed to close out the match in straight sets and take the title.
In other Highlights, Ulrich Capual made it to the Semifinal of the 2nd round consolation tournament beating some great players on the way, before falling to Victor Chien of Claremont. Freshman David Hutton and Sophomore Donald James made a great start to their season winning their first tournament together by taking the 1st round doubles consolation title.
Overall, a fantastic weekend of tennis with the Slugs taking home both the singles and doubles titles. Now on to Mobile, Alabama where Max Liberty-Point will compete for the ITA Small College National Singles title and Max Liberty-Point and Ilya Gendelman will compete for the ITA Small College National Doubles title. Thanks to all those who came out to watch, The Vartebedian family, The Kamel family, The Sass family, Dan Klein and Alex Villalobos. Also, Thank you to the Ortiz family for hosting us on our way down there.
Best wishes and thanks for the support,
Coach Hansen, Parmelly, Dorfman, and Morril
