Coming off victories against Victor Valley and Long Beach City College respectively last week, the Warrior men’s tennis team lost 8-1 at College of the Desert. The women’s fate was the same, losing 6-3 at Mt. San Antonio last Thursday.
The next match for the Warriors is today, when the men make-up a match at Long Beach City College and the women travel to Cerritos College(7-3, 3-1).
“Last week, the men had a very tough time (against College of the Desert), who are favorite to win state. The women lost a close match to Mt. San Antonio, but they hope to improve against the next time,” coach Steve Van Kanegan said.
The Warriors are progressing well as a team, with improvements in their fundamental skills and learning from previous matches.
“They are improving fundamentals skills and getting smarter on the court,” Van Kanegan said.
“We are progressing by learning from previous matches against our opponent since we have played all of the colleges
in our conference at least once. We are just trying to make improvements and perfect any flaws from the previous matches,” sophomore Kacy Turner said.
“We are preparing to be more consistent with our hits so we aren’t losing points with our unforced errors,” Van Kanegan said
The Warriors rarely take a week off because. Van Kanegan feels the team will lose rhythm and timing for the upcoming match.
For the men’s doubles against College of the Desert, Tsuyoshi Nagaoka and teammate Keith Boggero lost to Tiago Hayashi and Nico Combes 4-8. Auarye and Sergio Guerra lost to Max Becker and Alex Sandri 1-8. Taylor Neal and Jonathan Chin lost to Mauricio Berleze and V. Branisteanu 0-8.
In singles action, Nagaoka defeated Marcelo Alecio 2-6, 7-5. Boggero lost his match to Francisco Stuardo 0-6, 3-6. Jon Duarte lost his single match to Becker from College of the Desert 0-6, 0-6. Neal lost his single match to Sandri 0-6, 0-6. Chin lost his match to Berleze 1-6, 0-6. Guerra lost his single match to Patric Brunner 1-6, 0-6.
The women’s scores for all matches against Mt. San Antonio were available at press time.
The idea of the double match is part of the rules of tennis and they are part of the individual and team efforts, according to Van Kanegan.
“Everybody is getting along well with each other,” Van Kanegan said.
With opponents changing frequently, Van Kanegan feels it is unnecessary to scout each opponent, as he also refrains from attending opponents practices.
“We usually know who is returning from the other colleges,” Van Kanegan said. “We look at past scores and see which team is stronger and determind who is stronger in singles and doubles.”
