Injury plagued tennis team loses to Ventura
- Pierce College tennis player Moises Cardenas hits a two-handed backhand shot during a home game against Mt. San Jacinto College in Woodland Hills, Calif. on March 8, 2012. Photo by Ava Weintraub
Several injuries to regular lineup players affected the Pierce College tennis team in their match against Ventura on Tuesday.
The Brahmas lost at home against the Pirates with a final score of 6-3.
The lineup was kind of off due to the injuries according to Pierce head coach Rajeev Datt, attributing the loss to the fact that many players weren’t evenly matched to their opponents.
The singles matches ended with Ventura in the lead and with a final score of 4-2.
The doubles matches ended with a score of 2-1, also in Ventura’s favor.
Before the matches began, the coach for the Ventura Pirates Nelson Emery was confident in seeing a great competition.
“I think it’s going to be a close match,” he said.
Datt agreed with this after the game and praised his team for doing well despite the loss.
“We’re playing with guys out of the lineup,” Datt said. “The team played their hearts out.”
He stated that the team may have done better had David Engelberg been able to play; however, Engelberg has tendinitis in both wrists.
Another player on the team, Royce Pasiliao, said that he personally could have played better.
While he acknowledges that his strengths as a player are his forehand and serves, he hopes that he’ll be able to improve his backhand and confidence.
Emery believed that the win for Ventura could mainly be credited to their teamwork rather than to their skill.
“We’re deep, it’s not like we have a star,” Emery said. “They’re all very close, it’s nice from a coaching stand point.”
The team’s next game is going to be on Thursday, March 15, at 2 p.m. in Mt. San Jacinto.
http://info.piercecollege.edu/departments/athletics/Tennis.html
