Women's Tennis Begins Season
By Ryan Marshall
The Santa Clara women's tennis team opened up its fall season by participating in the Cal Nike Invitational last weekend at UC Berkeley. For the three-day tournament that showcased both singles and doubles (three flights of each), the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley hosted players from over 10 schools including No. 18 Arizona State, No. 19 University of Southern California, Santa Clara and, of course, No. 9 UC Berkeley.
The tournament began last Friday, and the Broncos were greeted with some tough competition.
In the gold flight, Santa Clara fell in both singles matches and also in the doubles match to the tournament host, Cal.
The better news was that the Broncos won all three of their singles matches in the blue flight (sending them along to the quarterfinals), and won both of their blue doubles matches.
On Saturday, Santa Clara turned in another strong performance overall, highlighted by the pairing of senior Kacie Wagner and junior Alex Zaniewski in the blue doubles flight.
The success they were able to achieve was beyond Zaniewski's expectations, or lack thereof.
"It was our first tournament, just to see how we do and stuff," said Zaniewski. "For me, personally, I didn't play last fall because I was injured so I went in expecting nothing, just to see how it goes."
Despite Zaniewski's expectations, she and Wagner just kept on winning. They won Friday, picked up two victories on Saturday in their quarterfinal and semifinal matches, and seemed primed to compete for the championship on Sunday.
However, in an unfortunate turn of events, Wagner was forced to sit out prior to the championship match due to a developing tendonitis in her right wrist.
"I started feeling my wrist swelling up on Friday, and then it just got progressively worse," said Wagner. "That was kind of a bummer that we couldn't play (because) we played so well on Saturday."
Things are only just getting started for the Broncos, who have every reason to look forward to future opportunities.
The Broncos secured their highest national ranking in program history last year — peaking at No. 57 mid-way through April and finishing the season at No. 68. The team produced its highest winning percentage of all time (0.739).
By the end of last season, the Broncos had a team profile that included a 4th-place finish in the West Coast Conference, a 17-6 overall record and five individuals who received post-season WCC honors.
But last season is not necessarily a thing of the past, because oddly enough, last year's Broncos are also this year's Broncos.
That's right. One of the best women's tennis teams in Santa Clara history had zero seniors on it. To be able to reconvene one year later and one year wiser should be a great asset for the Broncos.
Wagner described the level of familiarity among teammates as something that can be expanded upon and utilized on the court.
"I think it makes us feel more comfortable," said Wagner. "We all know each other so well, and we've worked together for a year now. We're in the exact same situation (as the year before) except now we have something to build off of."
Zaniewski will be wishing her doubles partner a speedy recovery so that the two can get back to their winning ways in time for the upcoming Saint Mary's Invitational.
"We have another tournament at Saint Mary's in two weeks which will be similar to this past one," said Zaniewski. "So hopefully (Kacie) will get better and we can redeem ourselves."
Missing from this weekend's action in Berkeley were No. 86 Katie Le and Jessie Agra, who traveled to Los Angeles for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All American Pre-Qualifying rounds, held at UCLA.
Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.