SANTA CRUZ, CA -- Due to inclement weather, the match against Claremont on March 6 was moved to the afternoon of March 5. The slugs ended up playing the University of LaVerne in the morning and Claremont-Mudd-Scripts in the afternoon. In the first match, Santa Cruz rolled to an 8-1 victory over the visiting Leopards. Ariana Mokhtari and Taylor Mannix started off the doubles sweep with an 8-0 victory at the top spot over Tarika Krishnamurthy and Valerie Lezin. They were followed by Nicole Hannouche and Angela Humphrey at the two spot who posted an 8-2 win over Carly Tucker and Allison Moncrief. Rachel Shinto and Sarah Courtland finished the sweep with an 8-6 win over Justine Ledesmen and Jessenia Garcia. In singles, UC Santa Cruz took the 1-5 spots and Becca Parker lost her match at the six spot 6-0, 6-1 to Arielle Monteilh. Freshman Sophie Lundeberg got her first collegiate win at the five singles spot with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Carly Tucker.

In the second match, UC Santa Cruz got off to a strong start in doubles against regional rival Claremont. With a convincing win at three doubles, Nicole Hannouche and Angela Humphrey beat Jessie Huang and Brittain Sutphin 8-2 to give the slugs the first point. The one doubles spot featured All-Americans Ariana Mokhtari and Taylor Mannix, and the ITA Fall Regional champions Kristin Lim and Crystal Lim. In a tough battle, Lim and Lim prevailed 8-4. Last off the court at the two spot, Alex Scotten and Laura Wade put the slugs up 2-1 with an 8-5 win over Jaclyn Smercek and Chloe Dobbert. Claremont swept all six singles matches to win the match 7-2. At the top singles spot, Ariana Mokhtari lost a close match to the ITA Fall National Champion Kristin Lim 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, and at six singles, Nicole Hannouche battled but fell short against Hannah Kornfeld by the same score. Next up for UCSC is Pomona-Pitzer at Pomona on March 11 at 2pm.