Women's Tennis Wins Twice

By Ryan Marshall

The Santa Clara women's tennis team came up with two big wins this past weekend over San Jose State University and the University of Oregon.

After breezing by San Jose State 7-0 on Friday afternoon, No. 71 Santa Clara looked forward to hosting another Pac-12 opponent on Saturday when they faced Oregon. 

"It has been great for our program to host two very good Pac-12 teams here at Santa Clara," said fifth-year head coach Ben Cabell in an email. "It's a credit to our team and school that Cal and Oregon were willing to come and play us at home. We knew both matches would be very tough, but our Bronco team was ready to start the season off with a big challenge." 

After Saturday's 4-3 victory over Oregon, the Broncos moved to 1-1 against teams from the Pac-12 this season.

Santa Clara made a statement early on by winning all three doubles matches, which turned out to be a deciding factor in the overall victory. 

"We knew going in it was going to be close one way or the other," said Cabell. "For me the key to the match was the doubles: when we were able to win all three matches that gave us a lot of confidence going into the singles." 

Katie Le (No. 37 individually), Alexandra Zaniewski and Kacie Wagner each defeated their singles opponents, but Oregon took away three singles victories of their own over Santa Clara's Kelly Lamble, Maggie McGeorge and Jessica Agra.

Thanks to their performance in doubles, the Broncos are now 2-1 overall as they head into their next match this Saturday at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. From there it will be on to Texas the following weekend, playing at Texas Tech University and Rice University.   

"Pacific is always a tough match, especially on their home courts," said Cabell. "We are going to have to be ready to play in order to come away with a win. I feel like if we play to our potential, then we will come out on top at the end of the day." 

With one of the highest rankings in program history, the Broncos are playing with confidence and are eyeing a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in the spring. 

There are several opportunities for Santa Clara to pick up some valuable wins on their schedule, which will be critical since the team will probably need to be ranked in the top 50 in order to be considered for an at-large bid to the tournament. The other way to qualify for the national tournament is by winning the West Coast Conference tournament at the end of the regular season.

"The team is really excited and confident for the rest of the season," said Cabell. "They know it's going to be tough, but they are working really hard to try and achieve the team goal of playing in the NCAA tournament. We are going to have to continue to win close, tough matches like Oregon throughout the year to make that happen."

Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852.