Women’s tennis suffered a 9-0 loss Thursday at home against Mt. San Antonio.
“We are playing very competitively,” Coach Steve Van Kanegan said of his team, which has one just one competition earlier during the preseason.
This season looks to be a developing season, as the team has just one returning player from last season’s squad.
Van Kanegan said that his team “lost several players because they ineligible or unable to play because prior commitments.”
The team has several players without a lot of experience, but it is still early in the season and there is lots of time to improve.
“We need to work out fundamentals and strategies, and just gain experience,” Van Kanegan said, “Everything needs improvement.”
Going into Thursday’s game, the team knew they had a tough opponent to face.
“I heard the team was really hard, but I thought we could do well against them,” Justine McCauley, who played for the team two years ago before taking a year off, said of the teams’ expectations.
While the team lost by a wide margin, players insisted that the scores aren’t representative of how well they’ve been playing.
“Points-wise, overall it didn’t really show how well we did,” Eunice Na said.
Na, who was praised by both teammates and her coach, is the teams’ only returning player, and has taken on the role of the leading player for her team.
“I think she takes a lot of the responsibility” McCauley said, who went on to say that Na also organizes lots of activities off the court as well.
Even with the tough loss and just one win on the season, the team has been doing some things correctly.
The girls didn’t simply hand their opponents a win, as they made them work for an extra point every time and did really well on returning the ball back, Na said.
“Carolina Mendoza is improving with each match, and everyone’s improved quite a bit” Van Kanegan said.
So far this season the coach has been very encouraging and has specifically worked to help each player individually due to the wide margin in experience levels between the players.
“Everyone on the team is a on a different level and hopefully everyone can just improve their own game and fix their weaknesses,” Na said.
Despite the tough loss, both the coach and players were optimistic about the upcoming season.
“We’re going to get a lot better,” McCauley said, stating that her team just needs to get more comfortable with their playing.
With a whole season to look forward to, the team cannot be rattled by a few losses and must stay in high hopes.
“Everyone still has a great attitude,” Van Kanegan said.