It was a tale of two cities last week as the Warriors took on Pasadena and Orange Coast.
It was an impressive day for the women’s tennis team and a disappointing day, a day for confidence and a day for reflecting. A day of good fortune and a day of bad, but fotunately they didn’t have to reacess their plans.
With three games left in the season, the women’s tennis team is on the verge of making the playoffs after a commanding win on Tuesday.
The Warriors will get the day off today. theirnext match is here Tuesday at 2 p.m. when they face Long Beach City, who they defeated 8-1 earlier this year.
“Long Beach is a decent team that has a chance to beat us,” Kim Nguyen said.
“If we keep our head in the game, we can dominate them like we did last time.”
The Warriors are very positive about their chances at making the playoffs following a commanding 8-1 victory over Pasadena City.
“Pasadena City was just not as good as us today; they were too easy,” assistant coach Harue Williams said.
“The team was focused even though the competition was easy.”
Top player La Marano did not play because of personal reasons. The rest of the Warriors didn’t seem to miss her though, against Pasadena City.
La Mirada has put on an impressive show for much of the season, but against a struggling Pasadena team, the Warriors came out strong.
The Warriors were led by No. 1 player Briana Dalo’s 6-0,6-4 victory. The rest of the singles victories were from Michelle Morse 6-1, 6-3; Tracy Kavanaugh 6-3, 6-2; Kim Nguyen 6-2, 6-2; Evetta Nettles 6-0, 6-1; and Cynthia Sinclair 6-0, 3-6, 6-1. The other two victories came from the doubles team of Dalo and Morse 8-1 and the team of Kavanaugh and Nguyen 8-0.
“We stayed patient and kept our heads in the game which helped us win,” Kavanaugh said. “Our goal for that game was to calm down, stay consistent, and try not to kill everything.”
The Warriors were handedtheir second loss of the season against Orange Coast College 7-2 last week.
While the loss was bitter, since it wasn’t a conference game, the results had little affect.
“We weren’t aggressive against them and it hurt us in the end,” coach Steve Van Kanegan said. “We are still in the playoff hunt because it was a non-conference game. It taught us a lot.”
With the season coming to an end, the team is playing well. And with weak opponents coming up, the team is trying its best at not looking forward to the season finale against Cerritos. Cerritos ranks as the top team in the conference.
“Individually you’ve got to tell yourself that you have to stay mentally tough and focus on the opponent in front of you,” Kavanaugh said.