The Bakersfield College men’s tennis team traveled to Woodland Hills to take on the L.A. Pierce College Brahmas and returned to town with another loss.
The Renegades went into the match on a three-game losing streak with their last win coming against the Brahmas at home on March 4. The Renegades fell to Pierce 6-3, bringing the losing streak to four and their overall record to 3-9.
BC’s No. 3 player Matt Booth pulled out a win against Patrick Massey with the scores of 6-4, 6-4, followed by the Renegades No. 5 player Chris Sides beating G.S. Navjeevan Sanders 6-2, 6-4.
The other win came in doubles against the Brahmas No. 1 doubles team of Ari Cohen and Logan Feldstein. BC’s No.2 player James Griffin and Booth took the match with the score of 8-5.
Head coach Regina Csibi-Krueger talked about her overall disappointment in the season and her team after the loss to L.A. Pierce.
“My team can’t close matches. I’m disappointed and frustrated at the lack of focus we’ve shown over the past couple of weeks. I’m very disappointed in the team’s performance, and we’re about to have a team meeting to hopefully get it together before some of these big tournaments,” said Csibi-Krueger.
“I have two steady-strong players that just keep winning, Booth and Griffin, but the rest of the team just isn’t keeping up their end.”
Back on March 25, the Renegades lost to Ventura College by the score of 9-0. This loss was the second to Ventura this season. It’s also the only team this season BC has failed to get a singles or doubles victory in.
Csibi-Krueger spoke about the conference power Ventura.
“Ventura is the strongest team in the conference, maybe the strongest in the state. We aren’t on their caliber, and never thought we could win that match,” said Csibi-Krueger. “We play in the toughest conference, and nobody believes they can beat Ventura either. Ventura top to bottom is unstoppable.”
Before taking on Ventura, the Renegades took on Santa Barbara City College at home on March 18. BC lost to SBCC 7-2 in the match up. and 6-3 in the first matchup back on Feb. 18. The two matches BC won against the Vaqueros both came in singles matches, when Griffin pulled out a win 6-2, 1-6, 7-6, and Robby Jennings won 6-3, 7-6.
Up next is the Western State Conference tournament on April 16-17, then the Ojai tournament April 22-25.
As far as what Csibi-Krueger thinks will happen in those tournaments, she went on to talk about high and low expectations.
“I have high expectations for Booth and Griffin. I’m hoping they can go far, but it all depends on if they play up to their ability. To be quite honest, the rest of the team doesn’t stand a chance against the competition,” said Csibi-Krueger.