Leah Heagy

Senior Katy Nash returned a ball during a singles match against the Caltech Beavers. La Verne skinned the Beavers, 5-4, on April 15, during their final home match for the semester. With their win, the Leopards now hold fifth place in the standings. The team travels to Occidental for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships today and tomorrow. The Leopards will also compete in the Ojai Tournament April 26-30.

Keisha Clay
Staff Writer

In their last home match of the season the women’s tennis team beat Caltech, 5-4 on April 15 to finish the conference in fifth place.

Junior Lacy Wiles, sophomore Jennifer Schiller, and senior Christina Ortiz all won their singles matches as both teams split with three won matches each.

Doubles teams composed of Wiles and senior Jessica Baker along with Ortiz and Claudia Chavez won two out of their three doubles matches.

The ULV ladies lost three of their last five matches.

This win was just what they needed before the upcoming Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

“Our coach prepared us more for this match and he gave us a motivational talk right before,” said Ortiz a business administration major, who has played tennis for eight years and has been on the women’s team since she was a freshman.

“The talk really helped us on the court.”
“The team was amazing this year,” Ortiz said. “Finishing fifth in conference is the best we have ever done.”

“We have the opportunity to finish fourth if we do well in the SCIAC tournament,” said Baker a movement and sports science major, who has been on the team all four years.

“We are going to play our best and apply what we’ve been practicing.”
The ULV ladies are pumped for the SCIAC tournament.

They are up against a tough team in the first round, but they are not going to let that affect them they are going to think positively, Ortiz noted.

Ortiz personally wants to be more aggressive at the net and said she is working on that.

Wiles said she is going to play to win and step her game up for the coming tournament.

“This season has been a lot of fun and it has been good,” said Wiles, a philosophy major who has been playing tennis for 10 years, although this is her first year on the team.

“We had a few injuries throughout the season; however we did well in spite of everything we had been through.

Up next for the women will be the SCIAC Tournament in Occidental at 8 a.m. today and tomorrow.

The team will also compete in the Ojai Tournament April 26-30.

Keisha Clay can be reached at kclay@ulv.edu.