The Bakersfield College men’s tennis team was beaten 5-4 in matches against Sierra College on Feb. 5 at BC.
On Feb. 2 in Fresno, the men’s team was shutout 9-0 in matches versus Fresno City College. In six singles matches, the BC men were able to win a combined total of only 17 games (72-17), and in the doubles, the men won only three games in three matches (24-3). The FCC squad was led by top-seeded Andre Almeida (from Brazil), as he defeated Adrian Magallanes of BC by a 6-0, 6-0 blanking.
The top-seeded duo of Almeida and Christian Fisher defeated Adrian Magallanes and Aaron Hernandez from BC by an 8-1 score in the men’s doubles.
On the women’s side, the Renegades fared a little better, winning two matches and losing seven.
After the matches against Fresno, BC Tennis coach Teri Lynott discussed the state of both the men and women squads.
Speaking in reference to the FCC men’s team, Lynott said, “Their number one player that played us yesterday, he’s number one in northern California.”
While also mentioning that FCC has six men ranked in the top 10 in pre-season rankings for players in Northern California, she also discussed how strong their team is.
“They have a lot of foreign players on their team, we showed a lot of heart out there, but they were definitely the better team yesterday, a lot of talent, and probably played a lot more tennis than we have in our lifetime, that’s for sure.”
Lynott went on to mention that all of the matches played so far are merely tune-ups for the real season, the conference season.
“All of these matches are pre-season matches, we don’t start our conference till the 23rd of February,” she said.
Lynott also talked about how her team puts forth a lot of effort and works extra hard to improve their games.
They have three-hour practices throughout the week, and many of them spend extra time on their own, before and after practices, while also playing and practicing on weekends as well.
The team plays its next match on Feb. 17-18 in the Modesto Invitational at Modesto College.