THOUSAND OAKS– No. 37 UC Santa Cruz women's tennis defeated Cal Lutheran 5-4 on Sunday to finish their Southern California roadtrip. 24 hours after a 7-0 loss at Redlands, the Banana Slugs used a big comeback in singles and improved to 1-1 in the Spring.

"I'm extremely proud of this team. They continue to show toughness that is driving them to wins that the program hasn't had in a long time," said interim coach Ross Pytko afterward.

UC Santa Cruz trailed 2-1 after doubles before Chloe Wu and Meghana Damojipurapu both won in straight sets at No. 3 and No. 4 singles respectively.  Natalie Sprenger had a three-set victory at No. 2 to give the Banana Slugs the lead before Melody Ghaffari won at No. 5 and clinched the match.

"Cal Lu was very tough today," Pytko said. "We just came out in singles and wanted it a little bit more. We had amazing leadership from Nat and the first-years - Chloe, Melody and Sweden Van Houten - keep coming up with huge wins in singles and doubles." 

The Banana Slugs head to the Pacific Northwest next weekend for two matches, beginning with George Fox on Friday February 16th.
 

	Singles
1	Carmen Bufkin (CLU) def. Sara Beckman (UCSC) 6-0, 6-3
2	Natalie Sprenger (UCSC) def. Luisa Garcia 6-3, 4-6, 6-0
3	Chloe Wu (UCSC) def. Madi Ford 6-0, 6-2
4	Meghana Damojipurapu (UCSC) def. Kylee Limpias 6-4, 6-1
5	Melody Ghaffari (UCSC) def. Anya Rajan 7-6, 6-3
6	Kayla Kling (CLU) def. Sweden Van Houten (UCSC)  5-7, 6-1, 5-7
	Order of finish:
	Doubles
1	Bufkin/Rajan (CLU) def.  Sprenger/Beckman (UCSC) 8-6
2	Wu/Van Houten (UCSC) def. Garcia/Jucys 8-7
3	Limpias/Ford (CLU) def. Damojipurapu/Ghaffari 8-5
	Order of finish: 3,1,2