The Bakersfield College tennis squads traveled to Ventura College on April 13-14 to play in the WSC Tournament, which was an opportunity for the team to qualify players in the conference regionals.
It basically hinges on the luck of the draw, according to BC coach Teri Lynott.
“All six players from both the men and women are put into one large draw,” she said. “The goal in this draw is to get to the quarterfinals, which qualifies you for the next event, which is regionals. Then in the regionals tournament, they do the same thing, and if you make it to the quarterfinals, you qualify for state.”
Lynott went on to explain that this tournament involves all the schools in the Western State Conference.
“I think we’re going into it thinking it’s a fresh start. It will depend largely on what draws we get. If my number one player runs into in the second round, the number one seed, chances are they’re not going to get past that round. If they get a good draw, they could make it to the quarterfinals.”
There were 16 seeds in both the women and men’s side.
Two of the BC women were able to advance. Leah Stewart defeated Phoebe Minette of Glendale 7-5, 6-0, and Jackie Griffin defeated Yuka Kyota of Santa Monica 6-2, 6-0. Morgan Frazier (BC) defeated Zar Chaverdian of Glendale 6-2, 6-3, but then lost to Julianna Baclear of Ventura in her second match, so she wasn’t able to advance.
Stewart and Griffin will play in the next round on April 20 in Ventura. Stewart is scheduled to play No. 2 Juliana Nelkin of Santa Monica, and Griffin is scheduled to play No. 1 Sophie Agner of Santa Barbara. If they win, they qualify for Regionals.
Back on March 29 against No. 1 seeded Ventura, the BC women’s tennis team was shut out 9-0 in matches at BC, and on the same day in Ventura, the men were also blanked 9-0 against their conference powerhouse opponent.
After those matches, coach Lynott addressed the mental state of the team.“I do feel like there is a little bit of discouragement going on right now within the team because it’s been a rough season. Yet we’ve been working really hard and practicing hard and playing better, but we’re in a situation where we’re competing against the best, so that has made it hard. Tennis, as I guess it’s the case in any sport, a large portion of it is your confidence level, and when you’re beaten down, it’s hard to remain confident.”