The No. 39 Caltech women’s tennis team has become the first in department history to earn the right to host a first-round match in the SCIAC Championships. The #4 seed Beavers will host #5 California Lutheran University this Friday, May 5 at 3 p.m. The Beavers have compiled what would be the first winning record […]
The No. 39 Caltech women’s tennis team has become the first in department history to earn the right to host a first-round match in the SCIAC Championships. The #4 seed Beavers will host #5 California Lutheran University this Friday, May 5 at 3 p.m.
The Beavers have compiled what would be the first winning record over SCIAC play in program history at 4-3, while the Regals enter the tournament at 3-4 by virtue of Caltech’s 7-2 win on Mar. 3. The victory marked the first over a nationally ranked opponent in program history, one which Caltech followed up with a second just eight days later, edging Hardin-Simmons University, 6-3.
Caltech has been strongest at #2-5 singles and #1-2 doubles, with every single player posting a .500 or better record in SCIAC singles competition. Sophomore Kana Moriyama (Redmond, Wash. / Redmond) has locked down the top spot in the lineup, where she went 4-3, a record which freshman Angelica Zhou (Temple City, Calif. / Arcadia) and junior Erin Wang (Auburn, Calif. / Del Oro) matched playing primarily #3 and #5 singles, respectively. Sophomore Julia Reisler (Plano, Texas / Greenhill) went 4-2 across #2 and #3 singles, while rookie Alexandra Bodrova (Russia / Kurchatovskaya School) posted a 3-2 mark at #4. Senior Sophia Chen (Newport Beach, Calif. / Corona Del Mar) and juniors Sarah Cai (Livermore, Calif. / West Lafeyette Jr.-Sr.) and Vinci Chen (Austin, Texas / Westwood) combined to go 7-3 mainly at courts #5 and #6 in a lineup that proved formidable at all six spots. A recent shakeup in doubles has seen the Beavers go 7-2 over their past three SCIAC matchups, leaving no easy points for opponents at any court.
CLU, which has only limited statistics publicly available, boasts a singles lineup with little variance between any position, although their top doubles team has gone just 1-5 overall this season while the #2 pairing of Gianna Cupo and Sarah Seeman was undefeated through four matches together. Both have moved down in the lineup since last season, when Cupo went 8-6 overall at #1 singles and Seeman was 8-6 at #2. In the Beavers’ victory over the Regals, Caltech rallied after losing #2 and #3 doubles to sweep all six singles matches in straight sets.
