Women's Tennis Makes History

By Ryan Mahoney

It seems like tennis has taken over as the marquee sport at Santa Clara. 

A year after the men's team scored their first ever NCAA bid, the women's team has earned a share of their first West Coast Conference championship.

Although the No. 63 Santa Clara women's tennis team ended its regular season on Sunday with a 5-2 defeat to No. 70 University of Oregon that ended their four match win streak, it did little to dampen their spirits. 

That's because for the first time in program history, the Broncos are WCC champions, finishing in a three-way tie with Saint Mary's College and Pepperdine University. All three teams finished with a 7-1 record in the WCC following the second season of a new round-robin conference schedule.

Now the Broncos will turn their eyes to the WCC Championships in San Diego, Calif., where they hope to earn the program's first ever NCAA Tournament berth.

While the team is excited to be where they are, senior Kelly Lamble has her sights clearly set on the conference tournament this week.

"I think the tournament decides the real conference champion," said Lamble. "It seemed like we were always stuck in that fourth-place finish, so to break out of that and finish first is great. We played a much tougher schedule this season, so while the overall record may not be as impressive, it helped us get to where we are." 

The Broncos will likely have to win the conference tournament if they want to continue to make history and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. 

After dispatching the University of Portland and Gonzaga University in the WCC Championships last year, Santa Clara then fell to perennial power Pepperdine. In the history of WCC women's tennis, the Waves have won the conference 22 times, finished second four times and only finished as low as third once. 

This year looks to be no different, as the Waves have received a double bye into the semifinals, meaning the Broncos will have to beat Pepperdine in order to win the championship. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds both earned the double bye, while the Broncos will start play in the quarterfinals after finishing only a fraction of a point behind Pepperdine for the second seed. Saint Mary's received the top spot.

It is all especially sweet for Lamble, whose father, Mike Lamble, came to Santa Clara as a tennis player from Australia. Now, the elder Lamble has seen both his daughter and son, Santa Clara men's tennis star John Lamble, play a large role in taking their respective teams to unprecedented heights. 

"I think the high point was last year with the men in the NCAA Tournament against Stanford," Kelly Lamble said. "We had a whole bus of Ruff Riders there, my parents were there and the whole women's team was there. It really helped set the tone for our season."  

The conference tournament will begin on April 26 before wrapping up four days later.

Contact Ryan Mahoney at rmahoney@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.