Match Preview: #1 UC Santa Cruz vs. #11 Redlands (April 11)

Despite the fact that they are #1 in the country, I think most people underrate the Banana Slugs this year. They lost Seeberger, but they have the rest of their team back and are the favorite for nationals right now. This will be a good test for the Slugs to see how good they really are. Redlands will have a very hard time at the top in both singles and doubles. I would expect Santa Cruz to run away with 1 doubles as well as 1 and 3 singles right away. The rest of the matches will be fairly competitive, particularly in the 4, 5 and 6 singles positions. Any team in the country would have to have their best day to beat UCSC this year and I think we will find that out this weekend. I would expect the Slugs to have an 8-1 or 7-2 victory in this match against a legitimate top 12 team. Redlands will keep it competitive, but Santa Cruz is just too good.

Probable Starters:
1. #1 Kamel/Vartabedian (SC) vs. #19 Wagar/Cook (UR)
2. #3 Pybas/Ortiz (SC) vs. Reading/Hasenyager (UR)
3. Liberty-Point/Gendelman (SC) vs. Hammond/Wong (UR)

1. #4 Jared Kamel (SC) vs. #34 Matt Liebman (UR)
2. #12 Max Ortiz (SC) vs. #30 Eric Wagar (UR)
3. #11 Brian Pybas (SC) vs. Aron Ouye (UR)
4. #40 Colin Mark-Griffin (SC) vs. Mike Reading (UR)
5. Max Liberty-Point (SC) vs. Chris Trippel (UR)
6. Silvio Chiba (SC) vs. Ransom Cook (UR)