Leopard sophomore Janae Chinn hits a backhand in her first singles match against No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps April 28 at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. La Verne was swept, 9-0, to the Athenas. / photo by Brooke Grasso
Jose Brambila
Staff Writer
The women’s tennis team lost to No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 9-0, April 28 at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. The team then snapped its three game losing streak to edge Caltech, 5-4, Saturday at the Caltech Tennis Courts.
“Beating Caltech for our last match heading into SCIACs is a great confidence booster,” junior Bridget Etchegaray said. “We have the chance to beat some of the teams we lost to.”
The Leopards are 5-13 overall and 3-4 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.
In Thursday’s game, the Athenas got a quick sweep in the doubles matches
Etchegaray and sophomore Janae Chinn lost to the 2015 doubles runner-up duo of senior Caroline Ward and junior Katie Kuosman, 8-1.
La Verne junior Areli Martinez and sophomore Madison Madewell faced sophomores Lindsay Brown and Bria Smith and lost, 8-2.
The doubles sweep was finalized when La Verne freshman Savannah Goode and senior Shenelle Trujillo were defeated, 8-1, by sophomore Kyla Scott and freshman Jessie Cruz.
La Verne headed into singles play down, 3-0 and the Athenas controlled the singles matches to put the Leopards away.
Etchegaray was defeated by Ward, 6-2, 6-3.
Goode was bageled twice in her singles match against Kuosman, 6-0, 6-0.
To complete the sweep of the day, Trujillo fell to freshman Dolan, 6-0, 6-1.
La Verne hoped to get a win streak going after dropping three straight matches and succeeded barely edging Caltech Saturday.
The teams split the first two doubles matches, but Goode and Trujillo pulled out an 8-6 win over freshman Kana Moriyama and sophomore Erin Wang to give the Leopards a 2-1 lead heading into singles play.
Etchegaray quickly beat sophomore Vinci Chen, 6-1, 6-0 to get things started in singles play for La Verne.
Madewell dispatched freshman Cece Andrews, 6-3, 6-1.
The Beavers won two singles matches, but that was not enough.
Goode pulled out a dramatic three-set win over freshman Julia Reisler singles match 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
This sealed the win and a postseason berth for La Verne.
Chinn said she cannot wait for the SCIAC tournament to begin to avenge earlier losses against conference opponents.
“Our goal is to finish top five in SCIAC tournament play,” Chinn said. “We got nothing to lose.”
La Verne will compete in the SCIAC postseason tournament this weekend and play at Cal Lutheran Friday at 3 p.m.
Jose Brambila can be reached at jose.brambila@laverne.edu.