Nancy Dyleuth

Doubles team Jessica Baker and Francesca Chiaromonte rally against Michelle Sekyra and Briana Smalling of Cal Lutheran in the final doubles match Saturday. Baker and Chiaromonte lose the games, 8-6. The women’s team starts the season with a 1-1 record.

Galo Pesantes
Staff Writer

Starting their 2006 season on level ground, the women’s tennis team split their opening matches defeating Whittier on Feb. 10, 8-1, and falling to Cal Lutheran on Saturday, 9-0.

Against Cal Lutheran, top doubles team Jessica Baker and Francesca Chiaromonte displayed strong play throughout the games but ultimately fell 8-6 in the 1st doubles match. The other two doubles teams headed by Lindsey Nitta and Natasha Badkoubei, in addition to the third doubles team led by Alisa Narjaryan and Christian Ortiz, played well but were unable to capitalize on many games losing both matches 8-0.

“Cal Lu is a tough team. They have a solid doubles team and they showed that today,” junior captain Jessica Baker said. “Franscesca and I played well but we are a new doubles team. We have a lot to improve on in the next couple games to get better and where we want to be as team.”

Following the fallout during the doubles matches, ULV was not able to respond during the singles matches although playing many tiebreak points in many matches. All six singles players were unable to come out victorious in their matches despite their hitting some key shots against Cal Lutheran. Baker and Chiaromonte led the way again for the Leopards winning one set each in their singles matches, but losing two other sets including one tiebreaker set. In particular, Chiaromonte had a chance to win her singles match if not for some misplaced shots and missed opportunities.

Other singles players including Narjayan and Badkonbei, who lost their matches despite taking their matches to three sets while Nitta and Nash lost their matches in two sets respectively.

“In the second set, I could have kept more balls in play instead of going for the winners on every point,” Narjayan said. “I could have gone for more high percentage shots and made more of a difference in the match.”

All nine matches were dropped by ULV and left the Leopards to fall back to 1-1 to begin the season. Head coach Brian Harrison remained upbeat and unfazed after the loss to Cal Lutheran at home.

“Overall, I think the team did well. We had very close matches throughout especially in the first doubles match and in four of our singles matches,” Harrison said. “Point opportunities were crucial and important throughout our matches today. They came down to the wire where the match could have gone either way.”

However, La Verne was able to begin the season on the right foot as they visited and defeated the Whittier Poets, 8-1, on Feb. 10. Baker was instrumental again in the win against Whittier, winning both her singles sets, 6-1, and doubles match, 8-3. ULV won all three doubles matches as well as all singles matches within two sets.

La Verne hopes to return to its winning ways competing against Redlands at 2 p.m. today and against Claremont-Mudd-Scripp at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at home.

Galo Pesantes can be reached at gpesantes@ulv.edu.