The California Lutheran University women’s tennis team lost a very close match to Trinity College from Connecticut on March 21 at the Poulson Tennis Center. Although the match was non-conference, both teams played until the end with Trinity College coming out on top after nearly three and a half hours of tennis.

The Regals jumped out to an early lead after the pairs of Rebecca Gold and Sarah Baker defeated Trinity on court No. 3, and Emily Werman and Annette Sousa won on court No. 2, both by scores of 8-2. Trinity won by the same margin on court No. 1, leaving the score at 2-1 after the doubles competition.

Although the Regals won the doubles competition, the Bantams showed up for the singles portion of the match, taking courts No. 1, 2, 3 and 5. Morgan Feldman defeated Cal Lutheran’s Rebecca Gold 6-0 and 6-1.

“Their singles are really really strong. The doubles, we definitely had the advantage there, but they are a good opponent. They are always a good opponent,” head coach Vanessa McPadden said.

Although Trinity plays for the New England Small College Athletic Conference, they come out to California and play Cal Lutheran almost every year.

The deciding match of the game happened on court No. 5 as Cal Lutheran sophomore Shelby Kubota lost a close match to Trinity captain and senior Carolyn Zimmer by a score of 6-4 and 7-6. The two played for nearly two hours and went to a seven point tie-breaker on court No. 5.

According to freshman player Mallory Kenny, Kubota’s match was unusually long.

“Usually they last at least 50 minutes, one of the girls…had a match that lasted three and a half hours,” Kenny said. “Tennis doesn’t have a timeline, so it’s whoever wins by two.”

Although Trinity dominated the singles, senior Sarah Baker and freshman Annette Sousa impressed on courts No. 4 and 6, respectively. Baker won in straight sets with scores of 6-4 and 6-4, as did Sousa with scores of 6-3 and 6-0.

McPadden was very impressed by Sousa’s performance.

“I think she has really improved on her game and just done outstanding. Her singles record is probably 9-1 or 9-2 and her doubles is really good too,” McPadden said.

With a roster containing one senior, one junior, three sophomores and four freshmen, the Regals are a younger team than most of their competition.

“We have a lot of freshman and sophomores, so we are dealing with inexperienced freshmen who are coming into college and learning the new rules and how doubles are so important,”  Gold said.

Freshmen and sophomores made up five of the six singles players for Cal Lutheran against Trinity.

“I think they are making great strides in their communication on the court, and I’m really proud of them,” Gold said. “We are going to keep growing for a few years because we have the same girls for a few years, and I’m just looking forward to it.”

The Regals can be seen in action on March 26 against Lewis and Clark College at 3 p.m. at the Poulson Tennis Center.

Kevin Repich
Staff Writer
Published March 25th, 2015