Evan Morter
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The Cal Poly men’s and women’s tennis teams will set out for NCAA tournament berths this weekend as they enter their respective Big West Conference tournaments at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif.
The men’s team earned the No. 2 seed heading into the championships after beating UC Santa Barbara in the final match of the regular season this past weekend, boasting a 9-12 overall record and a 4-1 record in conference play.
The men will await the winner of No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (8-13, 3-1 Big West) and No. 6 UC Riverside (2-21, 0-5), which will take place Thursday afternoon. The winner will face the Mustangs on Friday at 3 p.m.
A rematch between Cal Poly and the defending Big West Tournament champion Gauchos is likely, though, according to head coach Nick Carless.
“We’d be shocked if it’s not Santa Barbara,” Carless said. “Santa Barbara has a reputation of being tough to beat down there.”
Indian Wells, located near Palm Springs, is known for its high temperatures — and the tournament should be no exception.
The weather forecast predicts the temperature to rise to as high as 90 degrees during the championships, and Carless believes it will play a factor in each match.
“The courts are really slow,” he said. “The heat changes the conditions, which changes the way that tennis is going to be played.”
Nevertheless, each team plays under the same conditions and the acclimation process should be the same for every opponent, he said.
The Gauchos, if victorious on Thursday, will endure an entire game in the heat one day before the semifinal meeting. Yet each team has to play a match in similar conditions, and Carless likes his team’s chances come Friday.
“I know my guys are going to look forward to it,” Carless said. “They always play their best against Santa Barbara. We’ve had great success against them in the last couple of years.”
The Mustangs have won their last two conference matches heading into the tournament, which Carless believes will be instrumental in the team’s mentality heading into the postseason.
“We’re definitely playing our best right now,” he said. “We talked about that all year that we need to play our best tennis in the last match of the year — in the last shot of the year.”
While the men’s team will be the favorite in Friday’s match, the women’s team will likely be the underdog in every match in the tournament.
The Cal Poly women are heading into the championships in a similar position as the men with four wins in their last five matches, but find themselves in a different position than the men’s team in the Big West standings.
The women (7-10 overall, 4-5 Big West) enter the tournament in seventh place and will face No. 2 UC Irvine (23-5 overall, 9-0 Big West) on Friday.
Senior Jennifer Cornea compiled a record of 7-7 in singles play, while senior Kathryn Webb put together a team-best 8-4 record on the year and led the Mustangs in regular season play.
However, junior Hannah Stone’s return in early March was instrumental to the team’s midseason recovery, as the team managed a 4-3 record in the seven games since.
That has given the team a sense of confidence heading into the matchup against the Anteaters, head coach Damon Coupe said.
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence,” Coupe said. “The girls are confident. They’re playing together. They’re playing for each other.”
This cohesion will be vital to the team’s success, as UC Irvine has dropped just two matches in its last 24 outings. However, the low seeding doesn’t phase Cal Poly, according to Coupe, as the parody of the league has his team believing they have a shot to win it all.
“Obviously, there’s a lot more pressure because of the one and done,” Coupe said. “But any team can win it this year. If you come to play, you can win.”