Broncos earn first national ranking

By Alison Fleck

Despite a 5-2 loss to the University of California at Santa Barbara this past weekend, the Santa Clara women's tennis team earned its first-ever national ranking from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. With a 4-2 record, the Broncos are currently ranked 75th.

"Rankings are a point system like college football," Head Coach Damon Coupe said. "The strength of your schedule comes into play as well as how many ranked teams you beat. Once you beat a team, you want them to win the rest of their games so it improves their ranking, and makes you look better."

Coupe explains that beating No. 56 Cal Poly is what placed the Broncos initially at 70th out of 75 teams. This 41-year-old program has achieved a major milestone after only having played five games.

"I was ecstatic about our rankings and surprised that it occurred so early in the season," Coupe said. "Taking this position as head coach, I knew I wanted to bring that option to the table. I just couldn't believe it happened so fast."

The Broncos opened their season Jan. 16 with a 5-2 victory against Cal State Fullerton. Then Santa Clara followed the next day with a major victory over No. 56 Cal Poly.

The Broncos received their first loss to No. 21 Fresno State the following weekend, but the squad's strength impressed the ITA voters, who granted Santa Clara 36 votes in the poll. The more votes the Broncos get, the higher their ranking will be.

Sophomore Kelly Leathers explains how shocked she and her teammates were to have gotten ranked so early on in the season as well.

"Everyone wrote down this as a goal at the beginning of the season," Leathers said. "We didn't really think it would happen, but now that we're ranked, we're no longer the underdogs. We have to keep winning and work five times as hard in order to hold our ranking."

After practicing six days a week for two weeks, the Broncos returned to the courts and defeated University of California at Riverside 5-2 on the road in Santa Barbara. However, the Broncos fell 5-2 to University of California at Santa Barbara the next day.

"Santa Barbara worried me because we were only their second match," Coupe said. "They fought hard and beat us but now we're rooting for them to get ranked. The girls learned an important lesson to never let their guard down to any team."

With the leadership of its two seniors Catherine Cochrane and Janalle Kaloi, the Broncos are looking forward to having an impressive year, especially considering the season thus far.

Cochrane has always thought that her team should be ranked--and those sentiments have been echoed by Head Coach Coupe. She expressed her joy in how the team has improved tremendously since her freshman year.

"We've had a good team in the past, but we always would just come close to getting ranked," Cochrane said. "Janalle and I have been the only two from our grade for four years and it's been awesome to see how this team has changed and progressed mentally and physically."

The Broncos' have changed their mentality for the better, both on and off the court.

"I instill a better work ethic and train them harder than they were used too," Coupe said.

He focuses on what each girl needs to work on individually and doesn't allow them to get away with simple mistakes.

"This year's practice routine has been really intense on the court," Kaloi said. "We are each working on what we need to fix individually in order to improve the team as a whole. The training is incredibly hard but it's worth it in the end because we can now step onto a court and know that we deserve to win for training so hard. We've become a much smarter team."

Each member on the team, from the top players to the reserves, has gained a better sense of confidence. Coupe simulates competition among the girls at practice so they can push themselves harder and play more competitively.

"Coach tells us to take every team seriously," Kaloi said. "Because some teams are ranked that shouldn't be and some teams aren't that should be. Everyone matches up differently so we cannot afford to go into any game lightly."

The mental toughness of the players is something new this year and will definitely have an impact on the girls for the rest of the season. Coupe has each player pay attention to one another's problems and assist in correcting each issue.

"Even though tennis is an individual sport, we're all in the same cookie-cutter formation," Leathers said. "We all use the same strategies because we're being mentally trained the same way. I want us to get ranked a lot higher than we are and not take for granted the fact we got ranked. There are still a lot more teams out there to beat."

Santa Clara has returned home for a four-match home stand at the Degheri tennis courts. They kicked it off with a 4-2 win over Hawaii on Wednesday. Thursday they'll host No. 75 Washington State at 3:30 p.m. and Friday they'll play again at 3:30 p.m. against Saint Mary's.

"I want them to reach the point where they expect to win, not simply just hope to win," Coupe said.

* Contact Alison Fleck at (408) 551-1918 or afleck@scu.edu.