Men's tennis ends its season on bad note
Campus Times
April 25, 1997
It's time to prepare for next year, because the University of La Verne
men's tennis ended its disappointing season last weekend in defeat at the
SCIAC Championship at CalTech.
The No. 8 seed Leopards faced the Redland Bulldogs, the Occidental Tigers
and the Whittier Poets in the SCIAC tournament.
The first opponent the Leopards faced were the No.1 seed Bulldogs. In
the first round of the tournament the Leopards were overmatched by the Bulldogs
in a 5-1 defeat.
Junior Johnny McCool was the only player for the Leopards who was able
to pull out a match in singles, 6-2, 7-5.
"I got frustrated at times, but [Head] Coach [Tim] Fitzgerald helped
me out and kept me calm," McCool said.
The Bulldogs went on to win the SCIAC Championship by defeating Claremont
in the finals, 6-3. The Bulldogs overall record is, 10-0 in SCIAC, and 16-6
overall.
In the second round, the Leopards had the same result against No. 5
seeded Occidental, (5-5). The Leopards were defeated 8-1.
McCool again was the solo player on the team to win a singles match
for the Leopards. He needed three sets, 3-6, 6-2 and 6-2, to overcome the
Tigers in singles.
"The team played good. They all played there hearts off and as
a team we played to our potential," McCool said.
Freshman Grant Schmidt played a tight match in singles, before losing,
6-3, 7-5.
Continuing the tournament the next day, the Leopards played their last
match of the season against the Whittier Poets.
Once again, the Leopards were defeated 8-1. The one point coming from
another McCool victory, 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 in singles play.
"The season overall was a learning experience. . . hopefully next
year we will do better," McCool said.
SCIAC champions for men's tennis was Redlands. Second place went to
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, (8-2, 15-12) and Cal Lutheran, (7-3, 14-6), captured
the third place spot, after beating Pomona-Pitzer in another tight match,
5-4.