When the women’s tennis team had a winless conference record last year, the players were heartbroken.

This year it was a complete different story, in a large part due to Lindsay Guardado, who was honored as the South Coast Conference player of the year.

“It was actually surprising and exciting (to win the award),” Guardado said.

After the season came to a close, the women and the men will be headed to the Ojai tournament to battle other schools in singles and doubles matches today to Sunday.

“(The Ojai Tournament is) the oldest tournament on the west coast and it’s over 100 years old and it involves several different levels of play in college, juniors, adults, high school, division 1, 2 and 3 colleges and university,” coach Steve Van Kanegan said.

The Tournament, which was first started in the 1900s, is expecting roughly 40 to 50 colleges to be there, he said.

From the tournament seeding on the men’s side, some of the notable players who are going to compete are Andrew Sarawasi, who advances to the second round with a bye, and the doubles tandem of Sarawasi and Attila Lassu, who also advances to the second round with a bye and will face the doubles tandem of Tyler Croisetiere and Matt Tyrell of De Anza College.

“I’m hoping (Sarawasi) and (Lassu) can do well in singles and doubles and Yasuto Miyawaki and Jonathan Fisher had a very tough draw meaning, that they have a tough first round opponent,” Van Kanegan said.

On the women’s side, some of the notables are Lindsey Guardado, who will be facing Carolyn Morris of Ventura College, and the doubles tandem of Sara Carranza and Mio Hosaka, who will battle Linda Inthongpradith and Chloe Kuwabara of American River College.

Both teams are getting prepared for the tournament and will look to build on their success, Van Kanegan said.

“Last week, we practiced Monday to Thursday and we worked on basic fundamentals for a couple of days and the other two days we played sets,” Van Kanegan said.

In addition to the Ojai Tournament, after both the men and the women played well in the South Coast Conference (SCC) Tournament, some of the players will be headed to play in the regionals next week.

“We did very well, we had eight women and four men qualify for regionals, so it was a pretty good showing,” Van Kanegan said.

Guardado, who will be playing in the singles match at regionals as well as playing doubles with Caroline Mendoza, said that she is excited to showcase her skills in the regionals.

“(SCC Tournament) wasn’t tough because all I had to do is win one match at Cerritos College and it wasn’t that tough,” Sarawasi said.

With the teams headed to the Ojai Tournament to compete, they will be in uncharted territory as most of the players will be new to the atmosphere of the matches.

“Oh yeah, that’s the idea,” Van Kanegan said. “It gives them a chance to play in a prestigious crowd tournament in Ojai, so they will feel different pressure than they did over the year. With regionals, it will be a similar atmosphere.”