On Monday, April 6 both the men’s and women’s tennis teams learned that they had advanced to the PacWest Conference Championship. The teams are keeping this tradition alive as this is the 9th year in the row the men’s team have gone to the PacWest Championship, and the 8th year for the women’s team.
Junior health sciences major and co-captain of the women’s team Alexis Romano commented how this season has given them excellent preparation as they head into the championship.
“We’re expecting us to put up a good fight. I feel like that’s one thing our team has done really good this season, is no matter what, if it’s an off day or not, just putting our all into our matches and doing it for the team. And that’s one expectation that we all have of each other, is that we’re gonna fight no matter what,” Romano said.
HISTORIC GAMES
While advancing to the championship is a great accomplishment in itself, Romano said that there were many games this season that stood out to her as major achievements.
“There have been a lot of accomplishments, and I feel like one of them, I mean, it was a loss, but I feel like the result from that loss was very good. Our APU and Point Loma losses were 3-4, which were super close,” Romano said. “And I feel like this is a big accomplishment from last year because we would lose to them 7-0 all the time, so seeing our results, 3-4 now, shows progress with the team.”
The men’s team made history with several of their games this season. Junior business administration major and co-captain of the men’s team Thiago Canessa said that the team experienced many milestones this season through the unexpected wins.
“We’ve had many [milestones], our first one, probably we beat APU [Azusa Pacific University], they’ve always been at the top of the national rankings, at the top of the conference, and we were able to beat them 4-3 which was like insane atmosphere, crazy energy,” Canessa said. “And only the second time we’ve done that in program history… we beat HPU [Hawaii Pacific University] for the first time in program history in Hawaii at their home course, so that was really crazy as well. But that HPU win really showed that we’re capable of doing good things this season.”
GOING NATIONAL
In addition to this success, the team has been recognized at the national level several times this season. Currently, Biola is holding the fourth ranking of men’s tennis doubles by Angel Guerrero Melgar and Alejandro Flores Monteverde, previously holding the first position on March 4 until March 18, and the men’s team is ranked 32 on the national level. Canessa commented that their immense success this season is partly due to the closeness of the team.
“We have one of the tightest groups we’ve ever had. We’ll have barbecues a lot, we’ll have a lot of team bondings that everyone will just connect with. So everyone fits in great, it’s awesome,” Canessa said.
HEADING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP
Both Romano and Canessa said how their practice for the championship looks similar to the practice they have had day-by-day throughout the season. But for the championship the players are focusing on taking care of themselves and being grateful for the opportunity that they are given.
“We definitely have high expectations, and we’re putting in the work to get the result that we want, but we’re mainly focused on the process. Everyone’s just mainly taking care of themselves this week to feel healthy,” Canessa said.
The championship will take place Wednesday, April 15 and continue until Friday, April 17, and will be held in Surprise, Arizona, so be cheering for your fellow Biolans from afar as they head off to the championship.
