With powerful strokes and gritty play, the UCSD women’s tennis team defeated California Collegiate Athletic Association conference rival Cal State Los Angeles in its first league game, 6-3, on Feb. 10. The win improved the team’s early season record to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in league play.
Junior Justine Ang Fonte was a key player in the Tritons’ first win of the year, a 6-3 victory over Cal State Los Angeles on Feb. 10, winning both her singles and doubles matches.
The Lady Tritons, conference champions for the past three years, started off their title defense in dominating fashion over league rival Cal State Los Angeles. The team got off to a quick start when its players won two of the three doubles matches. No. 1 doubles pair senior captain Marsha Malinow and sophomore Ina Dan teamed up to win, 8-6. The No. 2 doubles pair, junior Justine Ang Fonte and senior Christy Knudsen, dominated their opponents, 8-3. However, the No. 3 doubles pair, freshman Pooja Desai and senior Allison Legakis, suffered a tough 7-9 loss, giving up the lead after being ahead for nearly the entire set.
The team also played brilliantly during its singles showdowns, winning four of the six matches. Malinow, who played No. 1 singles, defeated her opponent, 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in a super tiebreaker.
“”Winning the super tiebreaker was a major personal confidence-builder for me,”” Malinow said. “”I don’t even remember how many times I have split sets and lost the tiebreaker.””
Head coach Liz LaPlante praised the team captain.
“”Marsha is our No. 1 player,”” she said. “”Lately, she hasn’t been playing as well as she would like, but she finally stepped it up in the super tiebreaker. She’s finally getting her game back.””
The other singles wins all came in a dominating fashion. In No. 3 singles, Fonte completely overwhelmed her opponent 6-2, 6-2, and in No. 4 singles, Desai exacted revenge against one of the players whom she had played doubles against, routing her 6-2, 6-2 as well. In No. 6 singles, Legakis defeated her opponent 6-1, 6-1 in the most lopsided win of the afternoon. Unfortunately, in No. 2 singles, Dan fell quickly by a score of 6-2, 6-1. In No. 4 singles, sophomore Tessa Tran lost after a valiant effort in a super tiebreaker by a score of 6-4, 2-6, 7-10.
However, while the team seemed to have dominated on paper, it was a hard-fought win.
“”They were tougher than I expected,”” Malinow said. “”They have some new foreign recruits that made it tough. But we have a deeper team and I feel we can do even better [against them] next time.””
LaPlante seemed to be satisfied with the team’s performance as well.
“”Earlier on, [our play] was very shaky,”” she said. “”But later on in the game, they got steadier.””
The win provided a major boost to the team after it was defeated easily by Fresno Pacific University by a 1-8 score on Feb. 7.
“”It definitely brought us back up,”” Malinow said. “”We definitely needed this win.””
With plenty of returning starters for the team this season, the Tritons look to be the favorites again for the conference title this year. Despite the two early losses in nonconference play at the hands of Azusa Pacific University and Fresno Pacific University, the team remains confident that it will win the conference title again. Though the Tritons are confident, they will have some competitive league foes this year.
“”We have to watch out for Sonoma State, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State [Los Angeles],”” Malinow said.
LaPlante agreed that the Tritons will have some tough competition in the CCAA this year.
“”[Cal State Los Angeles] and Sonoma State both have new players and have improved,”” LaPlante said. “”We are still the same team, so we feel we can still win. It just means that it will be a little bit tougher to win this year. The 6-3 score was indicative of improved teams.””
