CLAREMONT, Calif. (April 18, 2009) – In an emotional
weekend the Occidental College women's tennis team used a
loss on the road to Cal Lutheran last week as motivation and the
No. 4 seeded Tigers upset the No. 3 seeded Regals winning 6-3 to
move up in the overall standings at the 2009 Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships hosted by
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps this weekend.
After doubles action Oxy trailed 2-1 with the No. 1 team of
Jennifer Wahba and Krishnaveni
Subbiah joining forces to earn an 8-5 victory.
When the first singles match of the day concluded, the Tigers
trailed 3-1.
On a whole, though singles play was a different story for the
Tigers today. They won the final five match-ups including a sweep
of the top three singles spots before a the freshman duo of
Katrina Gould and Frances Hutton
rounded out the field at No. 5 and 6, respectively.
Marissa Cassman came up with a 6-4, 6-3 win at
the No. 3 spot to pull the Tigers to 2-3. Hutton then
completed her No. 6 meeting with a 6-4, 6-2 victory to knot the
teams at 3-3. Wahba then followed suit with a 6-4, 6-3 victory, in
her final collegiate match, to pull Oxy ahead 4-3.
Needing just one more triumph to solidify the team victory, the
chances seemed bleak as both Tigers' players were
down.
Subbiah and Gould continued to claw back from significant
deficits, ultimately recording the most important wins of her young
collegiate career.
“Kris and Katrina battled and battled for every single
point and the results were favorable,” said Head Coach Linda
Park.
Subbiah, who had split sets (6-3, 3-6), was losing 3-love in the
third set at No. 1 singles. She climbed out of that 3-love
hole, pulling within a point at 4-3. Unfortunately, the heat
got to her and a series of cramping in both legs forced her to take
a medical time-out. After stretching out her legs she was able to
return to the court, but lost that next point. Knotted at 4-4,
Subbiah smacked the ball corner to corner, keeping her opponent off
balance, allowing her no chance to take control of the match as the
Oxy freshman won the next two games to take the final set 6-4,
solidifying the Tigers' win.
The final player of the day to exit the court was Gould, who
fell in the first set 1-6 before rebounding to
win 7-6 (6) and 1-0 (2). In the second set she
forced a tie-breaker, fighting off two match-points. Throughout
that set she remained consistent and composed as her CLU opponent
had three other match-point opportunities. With the match in the
books after Subbiah's win, Gould played a third set
tie-breaker and gave up only two points, winning 10-2.
The Tigers opened up the 2009 SCIAC Championship Tournament with
a 5-4 victory over CMS before falling to the Pomona-Pitzer
Sagehens, 9-0, who earned a share of the SCIAC title with Redlands.
Overall it was a very successful weekend and season for the
women's team, capped off with three players earning All-SCIAC
honors. At the end of competition the All-SCIAC teams were
announced. Subbiah landed on the First Team while Wahba and Cassman
were named to the Second Team. Cassman, a junior, also earned
Second Team status a year ago.
Occidental entered the day with nothing to lose and everything
to win and they did just that. Posting the best SCIAC finish in
Park's tenure, she had this to say.
“Earlier today we met as a team and talked about playing
with confidence and as consistently as possible,” she went
on, “Clearly our team meeting prior to the match was taken to
heart and they believed in their abilities on the
court.”
Today Oxy bids farewell to a pair of senior tennis players in
Wahba and Kaplan.Wahba was a four-time All-SCIAC honoree,
highlighted with a First Team selection in 2008.
Throughout the season each individual member of the tennis
squad, Wahba, Kaplan, Cassman, Gould, Hutton, Subbiah,
Colleen Robins, Kisa Ito, Isabelle Ying, Stephanie Babij,
Briana Cartwright and Rachel Washtien,
contributed. The culmination of those individual performances was a
team victory.
