By Ashley Gomez
The Riverside City College women’s tennis team won its seventh game in the Orange Empire Conference play against Fullerton College Mar. 26 and followed up with their 14th seasonal victory against Glendale College.
The Tigers defeated the Hornets, which was the Tigers’ second win against Fullerton this season. The team came through, winning the most matches in both the singles and doubles matchups to earn the overall victory of 8-1.
RCC thrived in this matchup off strong doubles play that was highlighted by the top freshman duo of Torrey Mateljan and Maxelle Bernie who worked towards an 8-4 victory.
Sophomore Heather Graf and freshman Yasmin Johnson earned the most dominant doubles victory an 8-1 score over their opposition.
Sophomore Emilia Lopez and freshman Hannah Stevenson followed this up with an 8-2 victory.
In singles competition, RCC went on to win five out of six matches. The Tigers picked up a notable win with freshman Miranda Cardenas who brought in the most dominant performance of all with a 6-0 victory in both matchups.
Along with Cardenas, fellow teammates Bernie, Johnson, Stevenson, and Graf secured assertive wins.
This win would propel RCC up to number two in the OEC standings.
The Tigers currently hold a 7-2 conference record with their only two losses, coming against Orange Coast College in separate games.
Orange Coast currently remains undefeated and ranked number one in the OEC with a perfect 9-0 record in the conference standings and a 17-0 record overall.
The Tigers would follow this victory with another as they would shut out Glendale Community College, 9-0.
Against Glendale, the three doubles matchups were won by the pairings of Mateljan and Bernie who won 8-1, Graf and Cardenas who won 8-0, and Stevenson and Lopez who won 8-0. The team also secured all singles matchups winning a collective score of 6-0.
The team was unavailable for comment due to an extensive road schedule as of press time.
RCC will return home on Thursday, April 4 against Irvine Valley College for their seasons final matchup before the start of the postseason.
This upcoming postseason, the Tigers will compete in the OEC tournament on April 11 for the ninth straight year in their aforementioned second seeded slot.
In the last seven years, the Tigers have won the OEC conference championship twice, both in 2012 and 2015. Both title under head coach Nikki Bonzoumet.
Before this however, they will compete in the first round of the Southern California Regionals against a team, and at a location, that has yet to be determined on April 9th.
