by Sara Lupu
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne men’s tennis team finished up its season last weekend in Redlands at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament ranked seventh place overall.
With a 1-6 SCIAC record, 5-16 overall, the Leopards did not finish where they had hoped, but put up a fight in the competitive conference where the top four teams are all ranked nationally. Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps look to finish in the top five in the nation, Cal Lutheran in the top 10, and Pomona-Pitzer in the top 15.
“It was a disappointing finish, but this conference was much tougher than it was at the beginning of the season,” head coach Steve Bergovoy said.
“We could have been fighting for fifth place, but we just didn’t come to play in the second match against Occidental after we dropped the first one to Redlands,” senior Jason Cortez said.
The last match of the weekend for the Leopards for seventh place was against Whittier where La Verne took all of the matches in an effort to finish the regular season play strong.
Battling for fifth place earlier in the weekend, the Leopards took on Occidental, where they only earned victories in the singles category from Chad Rodriguez and Cortez, losing the match 5-2.
“We just didn’t play up to our potential and ended up in seventh instead of fifth,” senior Josh Horowitz said. “Every year we feel like we have a chance and we don’t come out and accomplish what we should.”
The first match of the weekend for the Leopards was against eventual conference champions, Redlands.
The Bulldogs cleaned up as they swept the Leopards in all of the matches, even though seniors Rodriguez, Horowitz and Cortez put up fights in their respective matches.
Standout doubles Rodriguez and Cortez lost their first match, 6-8, to Redlands’ doubles team comprised of Brian Murphy and Michael Thoeresz. The two lost their last regular season match two weeks ago to the same pair with a score of 8-1.
“Redlands just took it out of us with that loss,” Cortez said. “We didn’t have much else to give the rest of the weekend.”
“The team performed as well as possible,” Bergovoy said. “They worked hard, their chemistry was great and the records don’t bear witness to the heart and fight of this team.”
With six players returning to the squad next year, and only three seniors leaving, the Leopards look to be able to lean on experience much more than they did this season.
