The UCSD women’s tennis team faced a pair of California Collegiate Athletic Association rivals this past weekend. On March 1, the Tritons defeated Sonoma State at Rohnert Park 9-0. At UC Davis the next day, the Tritons came back from a 2-1 deficit after the doubles matches to win the game 6-3.
Against SSU, Julie Westerman and Jenna Ishii defeated Kelly Murphy and Brianna Bailey at No. 1 doubles 8-5. At No. 2, Tara Siddiqui and Kristina Jansen defeated Deah Toby and Julie Fisher 8-6, and at No. 3, UCSD’s Sarah Bahlert and Allison Ishii defeated Nicole Warm and Any Piepenbrink 8-4.
In the singles matches, No. 1 Westerman defeated Murphy 6-0, 6-1; No. 2 Jansen defeated Bailey 6-2, 6-3; Marissa Hilker defeated Warm 6-2, 7-5; Roberts defeated Fisher 6-1, 6-3; Bahlert defeated Toby 6-0, 6-2; and Jenna Ishii defeated Piepenbrink 6-3, 6-2. The final score was a Triton win at 9-0.
Siddiqui did not play singles due to an illness, and instead rested up for the next day’s game. The Tritons’ Jasmin Dao did not play singles or doubles due to a pulled muscle from the match against Grand Canyon on Feb. 22.
The Aggies lost their March 1 match against Cal Poly Pomona 4-5, and March 2 would make the weekend a double disappointment for UCSD’s rival.
The match against Davis, whose tennis team is ranked No. 16, was “”awesome”” according to Triton head coach Liz LaPlante.
“”The girls were very pumped up to beat Davis, and they all stepped up to the challenge,”” she said.
In the doubles matches, the No. 2 doubles team of Dao and Siddiqui was defeated by Aggies’ Gretchen Schantz and Ally Muller 8-3. At No. 3, Jansen and Allison Ishii were also defeated by Christy Battig and Jennifer Fong 8-4. However, at No. 1, Westerman and Jenna Ishii defeated Janice Salomon and Nancy Mok 9-8 (8-5).
“”Julie and Jenna pulled off a great win at No. 1, which kept us in the game,”” LaPlante said.
Before the doubles matches, LaPlante made strategic changes to the lineup, moving Westerman to No. 1, Dao to No. 2, Siddiqui to No. 3 and Jansen to No. 4.
“”[We changed the lineup] due to different strengths and styles of their games,”” LaPlante said.
In singles, UCSD dominated to win five of the six matches. No. 1 Westerman defeated Salomon 7-6, 6-1; No. 2 Dao Defeated Muller 6-3, 6-1; No. 3 Siddiqui defeated Mok 6-3, 6-0; No. 4 Jansen defeated Schantz 4-6, 6-4 (10-3); and No. 6 Roberts defeated Kerri Roemer 6-2, 6-2. At No. 5, Hilker was defeated by Fong 6-4, 6-2.
“”San Diego was too good today,”” said Davis head coach Bill Maze.
UC Davis is now 4-4 in overall play and 2-2 in the CCAA conference.
On March 5, UCSD women’s tennis hosted Pittsburg for the first time in UCSD history. The results of the match were not available at press time.
UCSD will play its next six matches at home at the Northview Tennis courts. This weekend, the Tritons will play CSU Los Angeles on March 7, and on March 8, UCSD will face San Francisco State. Last season, the Tritons defeated CSULA 7-2 and SFSU 9-0.