After some tough preseason competition for the young squad, Highline women’s tennis fell to arch rival Bellevue in the first match of conference play.
Last season, Lady T-Birds tennis took home the program’s first ever title after a perfect conference and championship tournament run. Additionally, the team clinched the singles title, the doubles title, and the head coach of the year. Bellevue came in second place.
Akshay Rabadia/THUNDERWORD
“That is both the beauty and the curse of competing at the two year level. Every year is a new journey, after a tough year you get a ‘start-over’ but after a stellar year you also ‘start over’. This season we all feel lucky to have such a great returner in our team captain Princess Ventura,” said Head Tennis Coach Laura Rosa.
This season, the tennis program welcomed five freshman players: Riley Cordova, Jocelyn Nguyen, Kinsey Lockhart, Vania Moreno-Colin, and Denali Terry. The lone returner from last season is sophomore team captain Princess Ventura.
Freshman Jocelyn Nguyen was already at Highline as a running start student before she joined the program, said Nguyen.
“I played high school tennis and my coach got me connected to Coach Laura at one of my tournaments. I liked the idea of playing college tennis and the Highline team environment was very comfortable and welcoming,” said freshman Jocelyn Nguyen.
“The group is incredibly talented but young. They love the sport and quite quickly became a real family,” said Coach Rosa.
From Feb. 17-29, the Lady T-Birds had four preseason matches against surrounding four-year tennis programs. Highline went 0-4, falling to Pacific Lutheran University, 6-3, College of Idaho, 7-2, Lewis & Clark College, 9-0, and Willamette University, 6-3.
“We purposely stack our preseason matches against tough four-year opponents. We hit the ground running as the best way to prepare for a tough conference season. We have already learned a lot and improved a ton,” said Coach Rosa.
After two weeks of high-caliber preseason competition, Highline opened up NWAC conference going up against arch rival Bellevue. Prior to the match, the Lady Bulldogs were 1-1 in preseason having taken down Willamette, 6-3, but falling to Pacific Lutheran, 5-4.
Last Friday, the visiting Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady T-Bids 6-3 after a strong singles outing at the Boeing Tennis Center in Kent, WA.
Bellevue took five out of six singles matches except for the No. 2 match which was won by Highline’s Riley Cordova in a dominant fashion, 6-1, 6-1. In doubles action, Riley Cordova teamed up with Princess Ventura to win the No. 1 match and duo Kinsey Lockhart and Vania Moreno-Colin clinched the No. 2 victory, both with a box score of 8-4, 8-4. Bellevue took the third doubles match.
“The first and second doubles were doing really well. For me and my partner, we realized we needed to have more fun and relax to play confidently,” said Nguyen.
The Lady T-Birds, now 0-1 in conference, continue NWAC play hosting Spokane on Saturday, Mar. 18. The matches will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Boeing Tennis Center.