by Damien Alarcon
Editor in Chief
For the second time this season, the University of La Verne men’s tennis team collected a victory, improving its record to 2-13 overall.
The Leopards defeated Lewis and Clark College of Portland, Ore. 5-2 at the Nancy Blickenstaff Pavilion on Friday in non-conference action.
“We laid the smack down on Lewis and Clark,” said sophomore Jarrod Hesler. “They smelled what the J-Rod was cooking!”
Hesler, La Verne’s No. 3 player, earned a victory in his singles match over Chris Upjohn, 7-6, 6-2, and in doubles competition, 8-2. Senior Brian Rice was Hesler’s partner in doubles action.
Other victories for ULV in singles matches came from junior Kiran Asola, Rice and sophomore Harold Arellano.
“They were pretty tough, but I stuck with my game plan and it worked,” said Arellano. “I was surprised the way we played, because Lewis & Clark was a good team, a pretty solid team.”
His game plan, and that of the other players, was to play with the consistency the team has been having difficulty maintaining throughout the season.
Asola defeated Joshua Bernard 6-1, 6-0; Rice defeated Jon Edwards 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 and Arellano defeated Brendan Livingston 6-3, 6-2.
The Pioneers earned a win from Rocky Campbell, who defeated junior Sebastian Lopez, ULV’s No. 1 player, 2-6, 1-6. Freshman Tim Anderson won the first set of his match, but was unable to sweep his opponent for the match victory. Lewis & Clark’s Tim Hopp defeated Anderson 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
In doubles action, Anderson and Arellano also captured a win over Livingston and Hopp of the Pioneers, 8-4.
“Basically, what the win [over Lewis and Clark] is going to do is boost our ego a little bit, because obviously we haven’t been doing well this season,” said head coach Tim Fitzgerald.
The Leopards’ first victory was earned on March 3 when they defeated Hope International University, who only had four players, two short of a full squad.
“Now they know they can win,” said Fitzgerald. “Finally they have won a match, a legit match with all six players on the other team.”
The squad’s next challenge will be against Occidental on April 7 at Eagle Rock. Its final Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match will be the following day against Caltech at home.
From April 14-15, the season will conclude for ULV as the team will participate in a SCIAC tournament held in Claremont.
“We are looking forward to the SCIAC meet and hope to finish seventh if anything. We don’t want to be last,” said Arellano.
As of last Sunday, Redlands is leading the conference with a 6-0 record, 9-3 overall. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is second, also undefeated, but is 4-0. Pomona-Pitzer is in the third spot, with a 4-1 record.
La Verne (0-9 in SCIAC) is in last place.
