The women’s tennis team fell to Albion, 7-2, on March 16 at the Nancy Blickenstaff Tennis Pavilion in La Verne.
Top doubles team Jessica Baker and Francesca Chiaramonte were the only victorious doubles defeating Albion, 8-2.
The other doubles teams Katy Nash and Jenny Schiller fell short as well, losing 8-2. Dana Hester and Christina Ortiz played well but lost to Albion, 8-3.
“Frans and I brought our ‘A’ game to the court today,” said senior Jessica Baker. “We set up each other and executed each point becoming victorious against Albion.”
Following the doubles matches, the Leopards’ No. 5 singles match player Dana Hester brought La Verne its second win with a hard fought and earned match despite losing her first set, 4-6. But with concentration and determination Hester came back triumphant in the last two sets, 7-5, 6-2.
Although the other five singles players were not victorious, Baker and Chiaramonte did not give up as they took their matches to the third set.
Also Alisa Nadjaryan, Lacey Wiles, and Schiller put up hard fought matches even losing with their heads up in the second set to Albion.
“I think we could have beat them, but we have to work on being consistent,” said junior Jenny Schiller. “Our team worked really hard today and if we were to play Albion again in the future, I’ll be sure of it that we could beat them.”
The women’s tennis team was scheduled to play another match against Colorado College later the same day, however due to scheduling miscommunication between coaches, there was no match.
Although the day had its ups and downs, head coach Brian Harrison remained positive and confident in his team.
“We had some good opportunities to beat Albion when it went into the singles match being down 1-2. We did have some miss chances but overall had opportunity to win,” Harrison said.
La Verne remained upbeat during the matches against visitors Albion.
Baker and Chiaramonte brought their experience in their doubles match win, and Hester pulled through for La Verne in her hard fought battle singles match for the win.
Midway through the season, La Verne remains hopeful and positive while continuing to work hard and prepare for their upcoming matches.
La Verne has brought their overall record 1-5, and their SCIAC record 1-2. La Verne’s next match is March 26 against Lewis and Clark at the Blickenstaff Pavilion at 2 p.m.
Mercedes Bermudez can be reached at mbermudez@ulv.edu.
Mercedes Bermudez
