Women’s tennis waved goodbye to some talented Mustangs last spring but has high expectations for this coming season with five new freshmen and several nationally ranked returning players.
“The team has a lot of ability,” head coach Hugh Bream said . “It’s new and very enthused … very motivated to learn and improve and continue to build on the tradition.”
The 2011 season starts with the California Winter Invitational at California from Jan. 14 to Jan. 16. Cal Poly currently sits at No. 64 on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Women’s National Team Rankings released on Jan. 4 — Cal Poly was No. 63 at the end of last season. Bream considers this a “good starting point.”
“Sixty-four teams go to nationals and it’s our goal to improve where we are now,” Bream said.
Last year’s graduating seniors — Brittany Blalock, Diane Filip, Suzie Matzenauer and Steffi Wong — were all nationally ranked tennis players, and three were selected for the national all academic team.
“Last year our team had a lot of experience, a lot of maturity,” Bream said. “So they set a high and positive stand for our new incoming players.”
Last season, Matzenauer and Blalock received first-team All-Big West honors for singles and as a team received the first-team All-Big West honors for doubles. The two also received a NCAA Individual Championship Tournament berth. Matzenauer left the team only to return as their assistant coach this year.
“I’m just trying to share what I learned,” Matzenauer said. “They are still my friends; I’m just giving the best that I possibly can. The girls have so much potential.”
Steffi Wong, originally from Canada, was the recipient of the Big West Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and nationally ranked. She spent some time with the new team during fall quarter and said they have a lot of potential.
“If they go in with great attitudes, they’ll do really well,” Wong said. “Just keep your perspective, sometimes you can be overwhelmed.”
Sophomore Alexa Lee joined the Cal Poly team last year, where she paired up with Wong and received second team All-Big West honors for doubles. This season, doubles partners Lee and junior Amy Markhoff ranked No. 63 out of 1,500 teams in the nation, Bream said, which continues the tradition of Cal Poly having “extremely strong” doubles.
“We just have so much potential and so much to learn that we can only go up from here,” Lee said.
Among the new recruits is Jennifer Cornea. She’s a freshman who has been playing tennis for 11 years. Cornea was on the Loara High School team in Anaheim, where she was on the varsity team and MVP all four years.
“High school was completely different … it wasn’t a team thing, it was more individual,” Cornea said. “It’s a lot more fun here.”
She considers becoming a Mustang one of the best choices she’s ever made. One of the deciding factors was Bream.
“He knows the player inside and out, and he knows exactly what to tell them,” Cornea said. “If we need him, he’s there for us. He’s like a second dad.”
Cornea looks up to the older girls on the team, following their example and dedication for the team.
“It pushes me more because they’ve been on the team so long and they have so much more experience than I do,” she said.
Bream coaches the girls not only in tennis, but in time management. He admits that the team is in a “tough academic environment” and has to work with one of toughest schedules in the nation, but he wants them to not neglect academics. They will play nearly every weekend during the season, as well as hold practices during the week.
“We want to excel on the tennis court and the classroom,” he said.