The Orion Online

Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: Online Exclusives

Nov. 12, 2008

The Chico State tennis club competed at Stanford University over the weekend in its first tournament as a club.

Twenty teams from 12 schools participated in the United States Tennis Association Campus Championship of Northern California. More than one team represented some schools including Stanford University, which had a red and a white team.

The tournament was a world team tennis format. Teams play another school in all categories: men and women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The team with the most overall wins is credited with the victory.

The Wildcats first opponent was the Stanford University's white team. In a highly contested battle the Wildcats came up short, losing by two games 21-19.

The 'Cats won their next match against UC Merced's blue team 24-15. the final match of the day was against the UC Davis gold team, who went on to win the tournament.

Wildcats Skyler Boles and William Brown played a tough match during their doubles match against the Aggies that was tied 2-2. Then the rain started to come down around 2:30 p.m. Both teams tried to continue, but the weather would not permit it.

"We wanted to keep playing," Brown said. "We had a rhythm going. I ended up slipping and falling, and that's when we had to call it for the day."

The match resumed early the next morning, and the Wildcat pair earned the victory in a tiebreaker.

However, UC Davis still won the match 19-9, bumping the Wildcats out of the gold bracket.

After the first round of play, teams were put into different brackets depending on record. The top eight teams were placed in the gold bracket, followed by eight in the silver bracket. The bronze bracket was set with the final four teams.

Once in the silver bracket the 'Cats began to cruise. First they beat the University of San Francisco 30-7, and then they won 26-1 against St. Mary's College.

In the final of the silver bracket, the Wildcats took on Stanford University's red team. Chico State won 20-17.

With the win, the Wildcats won the silver bracket, finishing ninth overall in the 20-team field. They finished as the overall fourth rated university, behind Stanford University, UC Berkeley and UC Davis.

Outstanding achievements for the Wildcats included Jeff Stollberg, who went undefeated in men's singles. The men's doubles team of Boles and Brown went undefeated as well.

"As a team, we feel we had the most fun, most smiles, best attitude," said club founder Boles.

Bobby Mouren-Laurens can be reached at
bmourenlaurens@theorion.com

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