Weather delays allowed the Aggies to show their true colors.
“We didn’t get done until 10:30 at night,” said coach Daryl Lee. “Some of the players were essentially competing at the site for 15 hours straight.”
The inclement weather brought out the best in many Aggies, especially senior Tyler Lee.
Lee posted three singles wins but lost in the consolation semifinals by a score of 6-7, 6-4 to Connor Olson of Sonoma State.
Coach Lee also said the performances of freshmen George and Jack Horowitz stood out.
The Horowitz pair, who are cousins and doubles teammates, defeated Sherif Hamdy and Yousef El Bouzakouri of St. Mary’s 8-3 in the Round of 16 of the White bracket. In the quarterfinals, the duo fell to Eugene Muchynski and Grant Fleming of Santa Clara University by a final score of 8-3.
“[George and Jack] had very strong performances in their first doubles match together on Friday,” coach Lee said.
Jack Horowitz also posted his first singles win for the fall season, a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stewart Hutton of Sonoma State in the first round of the consolation draw.
Among other top performers were junior Nick Lopez and his freshman partner Torsten Keil-Long.
The teammates defeated the top-seeded doubles team of Bo Katsarov and Riki McLachlan from California in the Red doubles semifinals by a score of 8-4.
Coach Lee praised the play of Lopez, saying that he performed respectably in both singles and doubles action while adding that Keil-Long had a solid performance.
“Torsten is starting to show the ability that he has had all along as one of our top recruits for this year,” Coach Lee said.
The Gael Classic marks the final tournament of the fall for UC Davis. The Aggies will look to use the momentum from this weekend as they head into a two-month break before dual-match play begins on Jan. 16 at Santa Clara.
GRACE SPRAGUE can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
