CLAREMONT - The UC Santa Cruz men's tennis team took to the court finally with the season opening ITA Regional Tournament held in Claremont.

Playing from morning through night, the day started with the Banana Slugs dropping all three doubles matchups in the morning.
Andre Mardirossian and Sam Hall lost a close match to Jack Mattox and Trevor Reznik of Redlands 8-7.
The team of David Jackson and Reini Igna fell 8-4 to Caltech's Ishaan Kannan and John Kim. No. 1 duo Lucas Chen and Andrew Tjoa lost 8-6 to Eshaan Lumba and Matt Feng of co-hosts Pomona-Pitzer.

In Singles, UCSC went 1-3 in the A bracket, all against players from Claremont Mudd Scripps.
Mardirossian lost 2-6, 2-6 against fifth seed Phillip Martin, Hall dropped a 2-6, 4-6 match to third seed Robert Liu, while Chen won arguably the most exciting match of the day, beating Morgan Schilling 6-4, 3-6, 10-6. Chen however fell to Ian Freer in straight sets later Friday evening.

Four Banana Slugs participated in Flight B.
Two seeded Banana Slugs got past Caltech opponents. No. 3 seed Praneet Varade went 2-0 Friday, first beating Rishi Gundakaram of Caltech in Varade's first college match and then defeating Pomona's Jack Weiler. Eighth seeded Igna swept Matthew Gonzalgo 6-3, 6-3. Arjun Sahasrabuddhe lost in straight sets to Eshaan Lumba, the fourth seeded player in the Flight. Jackson was edged 4-6, 4-6 against top seed Roshan Morey of Pomona. 

"This tournament is always a big test. Our guys are fighting hard," said head coach Jimmy Soper. "We have had some big wins and tough losses so far. I think many of the guys have now shaken off the nerves so I am looking forward to seeing what they can do from here."

The action continues Saturday morning with the Consolation Rounds held at both Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.