Slug Invitational Results

SARATOGA, Calif. – A collection of five Urban Knights represented Academy of Art women's tennis in the UC Santa Cruz Slug Invitational hosted on West Valley College's campus. Across various singles and doubles draws, wins were achieved by each ART U competitor at different points over the weekend's action.

Coming in as the top seed in her flight, freshman Julia Ortega started with a pair of straight-sets victories on Saturday, triumphing over Stanislaus State's Annabelle Mulick 6-1, 6-1 then Fresno Pacific's Alice Marques 7-6(4), 6-0. Ortega's run would come to an end, however, on Sunday with a loss to Sara Beckman of UC Santa Cruz 0-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the flight finals.

Freshman Maria Vittoria Casucci also opened her flight with a win, besting Stanislaus State's Amber Huk 6-1, 6-3 though, despite taking Dominican's Audrey Rafols to the limit, she could not advance past the semifinal round following a 6-4, 7-6(3), 10-6 result. Sunday saw Casucci topped by Mariia Borodii of Fresno Pacific 6-2, 6-1.

One of the busiest Urban Knights over the weekend, Casucci also teamed with freshman Paulina Alvarez for a tough 8-3 defeat at the hands of FPU's Lea Falentin and Marques on Saturday before falling to the Cal Lutheran pairing of Jordan Bufkin and Sylvie Van Cott 8-2 then coming back to topple UC Santa Cruz's Beckman and Natalie Sprenger 8-2.

Competing exclusively as a doubles tandem, freshmen Aitana Comas Adam and Erica Hellbe started the weekend with an 8-3 loss to Borodii and Elise Leik from FPU then came back to take down UC Santa Cruz's Beckman and Sprenger 8-6 before dropping a hard-fought 8-7 (7-5) result to Bufkin and Van Cott of Cal Lutheran.

In singles action, Alvarez sustained a pair of defeats to Fresno Pacific's Falentin 6-4, 1-6, 10-5 and Dominican's Gina Dudley 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday, but bounced back with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Huk of Stanislaus on Sunday.
 
"I am proud of the way the girls fought and battled this weekend," said Interim Head Coach Kevin Tan-Perkins. "The team was able to figure some stuff out with the mental aspects of their game, but they were also able to show their grind by competing in six matches in two days. We have a short turn around as we head into our final tournament of the fall season at Santa Clara this weekend."

A three-day dual with NCAA Division I Santa Clara will conclude the Urban Knights' fall campaign across Nov. 5-7.