LOS ANGELES, CA – After playing exclusively indoors this winter, the Principia Women's Tennis team traveled to Los Angeles for spring break to play three outdoor matches and train outdoors for the spring season ahead.
The Panthers' first match came on Tuesday with an exhibition at a community college, El Camino, in Torrance. Principia handily defeated the Warriors 9-0 as the team played hard and practiced some key shots for the following matches against stronger NCAA competition.
On Wednesday, the Panthers headed over to Glendale to face the Occidental College Tigers on their campus. The Tigers were a strong team that won all three doubles matches and five out of six singles matches. Principia's lone singles win came at #5 as
Kimbeley Peterson won in a third set tiebreaker 10-6.
Bissola Lassissi also played a third set tiebreaker at #1 but fell 10-7 in a hard-fought match. #3 doubles was also a very close match that went to a tiebreaker at 7 games apiece. In the breaker, Peterson and
Saray Hernandez Cisneros fell behind within one point losing at 6-1, but battled back to tie it up 7-7 before losing 9-7.
The first two matches left the Panthers well prepared for a close battle with Whittier College on Friday to close out the trip. Two of the three doubles matches came down to the wire with the point of the day coming at #2 doubles on match point for Whittier at 7-6 with the Panthers duo of Lassissi and
Veronica Volkart trying to send it to a tiebreaker. The point went on for at least 20 hits with each team coming to the net but also retreating to the baseline as Whittier's #1 player finally hit a winner to secure the doubles sweep. Principia would not go quietly, however, as the Panthers won four of the six singles matches for a close final of 5-4 in favor of the Poets. Singles wins came from #1 Lassissi, #2 Cisneros (in three sets), #3
Mafe Quintero, and #6 Volkart.
In the end, five of the Panthers went 2-1 in singles for the trip, but all three doubles pairs lost both of their NCAA matches. The team has been looking stronger in singles play but plans to work hard to improve their doubles play with more presence at the net heading into their upcoming conference season. Overall, it was a great training trip filled with team bonding as well as an awesome day trip to see the top professional players compete at the Indian Wells Tournament in Palm Springs.
Up Next: The Panthers will host Mississippi University for Women on Saturday, March 23 at 10:00 AM for their conference opener as they press on towards their goal of winning the UMAC and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament!
