Despite the loss suffered during this weekend’s Community College Tennis State Playoffs in Fresno, the Pierce College men’s tennis team has a lot to be proud of.
For instance, this is the first time since Rajeev Datt took over as head coach five years ago that the Brahmas qualified for the state playoffs.
“Pierce has a rich history of winning conference titles,” Datt said. “I had high hopes for the team this year.”
Fifth-seeded Moises Cardenas and Sean Dullaghan competed in doubles and lost the first game against Foothill College, 6-3 and 6-4, in the North versus South single-elimination tournament. The Brahmas played third-seeded Alex Johnston and Ramon Martinez.
“It actually looked like the [Northern team] stacked up a little,” said 20-year-old Cardenas.
This sentiment was shared by Datt and Dullaghan.
During the Southern California Regional Tournament held in Palm Desert, Foothill was forced to retire from a match against the top seeded duo from the North after one of their players suffered a sprained ankle. This resulted in their third-seeded ranking.
“We actually saw [the top seeds and the third seeds] warming up right next to each other,” said Datt. “It just looked like the seeding was supposed to be the other way around.”
Stacking is not uncommon in the world of competitive tennis. In fact, about halfway through this season, Glendale Community College formally complained against Datt on suspicion of stacking.
“It came out to nothing,” Datt said. “I’m still waiting for an apology.”
According to Cardenas, an early misstep contributed to the loss the Brahmas sustained for the first game.
“It was around 1 p.m. and it was my turn to serve,” Cardenas said. “I served right into the sun.”
Both Cardenas and Dullaghan played very well, according to Datt.
“The other team was just more consistent with their returns,” he said. “I have to give them credit; they constantly put pressure on us and didn’t let us earn any easy points.”
Cardenas admitted that though he was expecting the Foothill players to be good, he underestimated just how well they would perform during the playoffs.
“[Sean and I] were shocked,” he said. “We were playing well, but they had answers to everything we threw at them. We had good hits, but they had even better responses.”
Both games took as long as half an hour each, according to Cardenas.
Dullaghan expressed his disappointment at his and Cardenas’ defeat, especially considering how close the two had been to being named state champions.
“It sucks to have been eliminated so early in the tournament, but it was a good experience,” he said. “People weren’t even expecting that we would make it all the way to state.”
Even though the team is already preparing for their next season, they aren’t going to forget this year anytime soon.
“It was a good year; we had a successful season overall,” said Cardenas. “As a team, we’ve had our highs and lows, but we finished strong.”
He said that people can expect the team to go even further than just qualifying for state next year.
“For next season, I want us to go undefeated,” Cardenas said. “We want to give Pierce something to brag about.”
