RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Santa Barbara City College Men's Tennis began the season with a solid effort against Riverside City College in a 3-6 loss on Tuesday.
The Vaqueros secured a 2-1 advantage in doubles play with wins at the No. 1 (Mauritz Seitz and Dom Arnell) and No. 3 positions (Ada Guler and Rodrigo Arenas). Santa Barbara showed quite a bit of improvement in the doubles play with wiser decision-making and solid team play.
"Mauritz and Dom got off to a fantastic start keeping their opponents on their heels by taking the ball early and hitting it cleanly," said head coach Danny Echt. "Mauritz used his height and excellent hands at the net which disrupted the RCC team who was very skilled off the ground, while Dom mixed up pace from the backcourt and was effective at coming forward and applying net pressure. Mauritz's much-improved serve came up big at 7-4 with a high percentage of first serves and Dom closed out the last game with two routine put-away volleys."
In singles, Ludi Chan was the lone Vaquero to secure a victory, battling through a three-set match
"Ludi showed a lot of guts today especially since he had not played for two weeks. He was disciplined in his approach and was mentally stable during a tight three-set dual," said Echt. "Some of his best play came late in the third set when he was willing to keep the ball deep and wait for the shorter ball to take the opportunity to move his opponent and force the errors."
Santa Barbara starts the season 0-1 and will play its first Western State Conference match on Thursday, Feb. 20, at Glendale City College.
