Ephs set to slug it out with UC Santa Cruz in NCAA Quarterfinals
Jeremy Weinberger '10
Purple Cows and Banana Slugs are two of the more famous mascots in NCAA Division III play and the men's tennis rivalry between the Williams purple cows and the UC Santa Cruz banana slugs only serves to raise the profiles higher.
It seems that every year Williams and Santa Cruz meet somewhere along the line in the NCAA Division III championships in the quarterfinals, semifinals or the finals. Williams is making its 14th trip to the NCAA Tournament and sports an overall mark of 40-13, winning the NCAA title in 1999, 2001 and 2002. This season marks the 13th consecutive trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals and second under head coach Dave Donn.
"Making the Elite 8 is a great accomplishment and was something we earned this year, going through a very difficult schedule, both in and out of conference," stated Eph head coach Dave Donn. "The Bowdoin match I feel was a testament to the resolve and character of our players. Coming off some disappointing results, the team really came together to play some of our best tennis of the year and we’ll certainly need to continue that against Santa Cruz."
UC Santa Cruz defeated Williams in Williamstown in 1998 to win the NCAA title and then the Ephs went on a run that found them knocking UC Santa Cruz out of the tournament three straight years, which prompted the banana slugs to hire a sports psychologist in 2004 (Click Here) to get over their lack of success vs. Williams and their fear of purple cows.
Jeff Kivitz came up huge for the purple cows in the 2004 and Williams clipped the banana slugs in the NCAA semis 4-3.
Fast forward to 2009 and the banana slugs are now ranked third in the nation and Dave Donn's purple cows are ranked eighth and on Tuesday, May 19th the banana slugs a nd purple cows will renew their on-court battle in the NCAA quarterfinals at Claremont, CA.
UC Santa Cruz is red hot after downing Claremont 5-0 to advance to the quarterfinals that will be played at Claremont and running their current Div. III win streak to 12. Overall UC Santa Cruz has fashioned a record of 16-7 and they are 13-2 vs. Div. III teams.
"Santa Cruz has been playing extremely well as of late and has a senior dominated lineup so we know they will be tough," noted Donn. "Doubles will be crucial, as it always is and we’ll need to grind out every point in singles and not make any silly mental errors."
Santa Cruz last lost on February 21st when they fell to Gustavus Adolphus 5-4, the day after they had lost to Kenyon 5-4. Since then the banana slugs have had their way with Div. III opponents.
"There is such a rich history between these two programs and I look forward to my first meeting with them as a coach," said Donn.
Dave Donn's Williams team is currently 14-5 on the season. Williams has yet to play Santa Cruz, Kenyon or Washington U. this season, but has posted a 1-4 mark against Middlebury, Amherst, Emory and Gustavus Adolphus. The win came over Gustavus on March 24th on the west coast by a score of 7-2. The purple cows also defeated #4 Claremont 5-4 on their spring break trip and have defeated 9 nationally ranked teams thus far.
