During the past seven days, the women’s tennis team met its first loss against Cerritos, while losing the mental match, then got it together against Santa Monica Tuesday.
Today the team will be matched up with Orange Coast on the road, followed by Pasadena City, here Tuesday.
While both teams were undefeated, Cerritos has had more matches than EC to date, thus was more prepared, so it beat EC soundly 7-2.
“They were a fine team, so it was a great midseason test. They took us a bit by surprise,” coach Steve Van Kanegan said. “They’re a very strong team this year. We’re still trying to settle in. We have not played as many matches due to our late start, and you know we’re on a sixteen-week calendar so we didn’t start until the seventeenth , and we didn’t have that many preseason matches. So it’s certainly not an excuse but there’s no question the more matched you get under your belt, the more prepared you are. Cerritos has played five more matches than us.”
Matched against Santa Monica, EC had no trouble finding its rhythm, taking five singles and one doubles on its way to a 6-3 victory. However, the play of doubles is a concern that is looming, which Van Kanegan and his coaching staff plan to address.
“I was still not pleased (despite beating Santa Monica) with our doubles. We’re setting very high standards,” he said. “In the past, EC has been known for our strong doubles team, so there’s no question we’re setting a high standard for the women. But based upon those standards, we’re not close to where I expect them to be.”
“By the time we face Cerritos again, we’ll be much more prepared mentally in singles, and much more prepared strategically and mentally in doubles.”
Briana Dalo, Tracy Kavanaugh, Michelle Morse, Evetta Nettles, and Kim Nguyen all won their singles matches against Santa Monica, while as a team they dropped two of three doubles.
“Briana looked very impressive, so we moved her up to number two. Tracy got off to a rough start and battled back and won a very impressive three-set match. Michele, at number four, just blew her opponent away, which she’s been doing, and Eveta Nettles won a three-set match. Kim Ngyuen won by forfeit,” Van Kanegan said.
While Dalo said she was strong against Santa Monica, getting around the court well and being on the move, she was philosophical about her defeat.
“Last Thursday sucked, especially because I played pretty bad,” she said. “It wasn’t like she beat me; it was more like I beat myself. It’s difficult if someone were to actually earn it and beat you. The thing is she didn’t earn it. I gave it to her but that was my fault.
“It was mental, but it started off as this strategic thing where I wasn’t getting back over and then it turned into ‘what are you doing’ and then I lost.”
