 "Photo: Gordon Huang")
Highlanders 7 - Tigers 0
The UCR Highlanders Men's Tennis team steamrolled the RCC Tigers en route to a 7-0 victory at home.
From the first serve on in the doubles matches, it was evident that the Tigers were just overmatched. The Highlanders took the lead and ran away with it - the teams of Quoc Doan and Felix Macherez, Austin Andres and John Park, Mike Conroy andFreddy Quintos won their matches 8-0, 8-2 and 8-2 respectively.
John "JP" Park bounced back from his loss against Vanguard earlier in the day to defeat Sam Pirani 6-2, 6-0. Park opened up a 3-0 lead in a dominating fashion and looked to run away with the match. However, Pirani clawed back into the match with back-to-back games before fading away and losing the next 8 straight games.
Freddy Quintos only lost two games the whole match, both in doubles, going 6-0, 6-0 against opponent Spencer Melendez.
"That was our most inspirational performance for the second match," said Highlander head coach York Strother.
Next week the Highlanders go on the road take on Southern Mississippi and nationally ranked UNLV.
Highlanders 5 - Lions 2
Vanguard University of Southern California played the UCR men's tennis team at the SRC tennis complex this past Saturday. The matchup was the first home game for Riverside, looking to rebound after a very debilitating defeat at the hands of the University of San Diego.
Last year, Vanguard University defeated UCR. This year, the same could not be said.
Doubles play was a sour point for the team. The doubles pairing of freshman Freddy Quintos and sophomore Michael Conroy were the only ones able to succeed in doubles play.
"The doubles definitely did not go as planned. We needed to play smarter, rather than harder. The team was playing hard but just made some crucial mistakes at important moments," Strother said.
Luckily, the Highlanders were able to dominate Vanguard in singles play. All but one match was won in singles play for the Highlanders. The sole loss was number one overall John Park. Even with the loss, Park played hard until the very end of the 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
The Highlanders won every other singles match, each only going to two sets. Vanguard itself featured an almost all-International squad, with many players from Europe. These regions also included Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and a few players also from Brazil.
"Most of the European players have played on clay courts mostly. We definitely had an advantage playing on our home court. Unlike doubles, we also played smarter than harder. We played with smart tactics."
Torreros 6 - Highlanders 1
The men's tennis team of UC Riverside faced elite competition this past Wednesday, facing off against the University of San Diego a school which the Highlanders have never beaten. The match took place on the University of San Diego West Tennis Courts in the afternoon.
The doubles did not start well for the Highlanders and the Torreros carried the momentum. The Torreros ended up sweeping the Highlanders in doubles play 3-0.
"San Diego will probably be a nationally ranked team. One of their players is ranked 34th overall in the nation," Strother said. "They were really able to attack us on all angles in doubles play."
In singles play, the results did not differ. The Highlanders dropped the first two singles matches.
Then, sophomore Felix Macherez was able to put up a highly contested effort to finally win a match for the team. Macherez defeated Charl Wolmarans 7-5 in the first set and then the second set went to 4-1. After the forth point for Macherez, Wolmarans was forced to retire the match and thus concede defeat. This resulted in the only win for the Highlanders in the match.
"SD was really a more talented team. Still, not one player backed down the entire time. It was the best effort the team gave in quite some time," Strother said.
Although the team did not face much success against San Diego, the high level of play prepared Riverside for much success against its next opponent, Vanguard.
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