The Izzy Derkos courts reached fever pitch levels of excitement Tuesday as the Santa Rosa Junior College tennis teams picked up a huge victory over Shasta College.
The women improved to 7-1 overall (3-1 in league) and the men’s team picked up its first win of the season, coming back to win in the singles section.
The women’s team won 7-2, both losses from forfeit. They started with singles and won all five matches, but first-year Sandy Yang prefers starting matches off with doubles. “Doubles gets me pumped up because I have a partner for motivation,” Yang said. The shakeup didn’t seem to affect Yang, as she won in straight sets to improve to 12-0 in overall matches this season.
Doubles were more of the same story for the women’s team. Both pairs won their matches 8-0 to clinch the victory for the Bear Cubs.
Head coach Connor Van Alstyne could not be happier with the women’s success thus far. “They’ve been playing lights out all year and that just continued into today’s match,” Van Alstyne said.
The men’s team were also forced to forfeit two games. They went into singles down 3-1; needing to win four of five matches to clinch a victory. Second-year Trevor Pinder and first-year Cade Stan won their matches with ease. Second-year Andres Jojoa-Ortega followed suit, which left it all up to second-year Shannon Connell.
Connell played a tough opponent and dropped the first set 7-5, but kept his composure and rebounded to win the next two sets 6-3 and 6-1. The final set included three aces from Connell as his teammates and coaches cheered him on. His win clinched a 5-4 victory for the Bear Cubs.
Connell had some extra motivation today, which showed on the court. “My mom came and watched for the first time,” Connell said. “I knew I couldn’t let her down.”
Coach Van Alstyne was blown away by the progress Connell has made this season. “Shannon had ice in his veins today,” Van Alstyne said. “Looking like Kobe in the fourth quarter.”
Up Next:
The men’s team plays at 1 p.m., March 2 at Modesto.
The women are off until they play at 1 p.m., March 6 at Solano College.
