The Cal Poly women’s tennis team has high hopes for its second spring match against Long Beach State on Friday, which will take place in San Luis Obispo.
The 49ers are the highest ranked team in the conference with a perfect 5-0 record in the Big West, but the Mustangs anticipate the advantage of a home game, said first year head coach Damon Coupe.
“You always have an advantage at home,” Coupe said. “The girls are comfortable … as long as we stay disciplined and compete hard.”
The discipline did not pay off on Monday however, when the team suffered a 4-3 loss against Dartmouth in its first spring game.
Cal Poly earned the doubles point for the second-successive match as junior Alexa Lee and senior Jocelyn Davis teamed up to beat Akiko Okuda and Theresa Smith, 8-2. Sophomores Ane McPike and Kathryn Webb then lost 8-5 against Rachel Decker-Sadowski and Janet Liu.
However, sophomore Gabrielle Gatewood and freshman Ireen Kuipers broke the doubles-point tie with an 8-5 win against Jeri Reichel and Sabrina Stewart.
In singles play, Lee won against Leonard at the No. 1 spot, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. However, Okuda beat Davis at No. 2, Janet Liu bested sophomore Jen Cornea at No. 3 and Theresa Smith rallied to win against Webb at No. 4. Gatewood came back to defeat Sabrina Stewart at No. 5, but Rachel Decker-Sadowski made it past McPike at No. 6, winning Dartmouth the match.
The Mustang team currently has seven players; after a string of injuries early in the season, Coupe asked for students with USATA experience to consider walking on. They must understand the level of competition and commitment of a college team as opposed to high school, Coupe said.
Despite efforts to recruit more players for the next six matches of the season, no one has applied yet.
He said the reason for the lack of applicants might be due to the tennis club team on campus.
“We have a very good club team,” he said. “They’re very competitive, and I think there’s a lot of loyalty there. I don’t fault them one bit on that.”
The team continues to play hard and the best they can after Cornea and Kuiper suffered injuries, Coupe said. Although, he is still entertaining the idea of a walk-on player who would compete in a match in case of an emergency to avoid defaulting a position.
Despite the small number of players, the team expects a successful season as the girls train hard, said assistant coach Suzie Matzenauer who also played tennis for Cal Poly.
“It’s kind of nice having a small team because … you can count on everyone to do their best,” Matzenauer said “The girls put in a lot of effort.”
Today, the team travels to Stanford for a match against the No. 6 Cardinal in Palo Alto.
Andrea Kang contributed to this article.