The UCSD women’s tennis team took revenge on rival Cal Poly Pomona, defeating the California Collegiate Athletic Association champions, 8-1, at the Northview Tennis Courts on March 6. The win marked a huge victory for the Tritons, who were defeated by the Broncos twice last year — once in the regular season and another in the finals of the CCAA Championship Tournament.
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“We came out fired up and mentally tough,” senior captain Julie Westerman said. “This was a match we’ve been wanting to win all season, so we were focused and ready.”
The Tritons’ doubles teams, which have been consistently improving throughout the season, demonstrated their strength by defeating all three of Cal Poly Pomona’s doubles teams with relative ease. At No. 1 doubles, Westerman and junior Jasmin Dao defeated their opponents, 8-2; sophomore Tara Siddiqui and freshman Kristin Bronowicki defeated their opponents, 8-3, at No. 2 doubles; and at No. 3, sophomore Leigh Roberts and freshman Katie McKee were able to win their match in a quick 8-1 set.
“We were playing really well in doubles, we were all communicating and using each person’s strengths to help win our matches,” Westerman said.
At singles, the only loss came at the No. 1 position, in which Cal Poly Pomona’s Dehlia Feliz, last year’s All-CCAA First Team selection, defeated Westerman in a tough 6-2 and 6-4 victory. Dao was able to win her match, 6-1 and 6-3, at No. 2 singles, and both Roberts and sophomore Marissa Hilker were able to defeat their opponents, 6-0, in the first set, with Roberts closing her match out at 6-3 and Hilker defeating her opponent, 6-2, in the second set at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively. Both No. 5 senior Kristina Jansen and No. 6 McKee had no trouble defeating their opponents; Jansen finished her match off, 6-0 and 6-1, and McKee defeated her opponent, 6-1 and 6-0.
The victory bumped the Tritons’ season record to 8-2 overall. Their second loss came from Division I Cal State Fullerton on March 4. Despite the lopsided final match score, 6-1, the Tritons had very close matches in the singles lineup.
The lone win came from Dao, who split sets with Fullerton’s Gina Le, 3-6 and 7-5, and was able to defeat Le in a super tiebreaker third set, 10-8. At No. 3, Roberts was able to split sets with her opponent, Ioana Sisoe, 6-0 and 4-6, but lost the last set 6-1. Siddiqui, who played No. 6 singles, was also able to force her match to three sets, defeating her opponent, 7-6, in the first set, then lost the next set 4-6, and the super-tiebreaker, 10-2.
“Every girl had to play a tough opponent; the individual scores were closer than the final score,” Westerman said. “But what we learned from the match is that no matter who the opponent is, Division I or Division III, we have to take them all one-by-one and not assume their level of play.”
On March 8, the Tritons will face Emory, the top-ranked Division III team, at the Northview Tennis Courts.
“It should be a good match,” Westerman said. “We’re expecting them to be a tough team.”
