By Jesus Coronel

In a battle of undefeated teams, the Tigers showed signs of rust while being blown out.

The Riverside City College women’s tennis team, 4-0 on the season, lost to 7-0 Orange Coast College 8-1 on Feb. 28.

The weather caused the team to reschedule recent matches and alter practice sessions.

“Hopefully moving forward, we’ll be back on track and not worry about the weather,” head coach Nikki Bonzoumet said.

The Tigers came into this game after not being able to play a match since Feb. 9, with games against El Camino and Saddleback being canceled and postponed due to recent storms.

The Pirates were able to dominate both the singles and doubles matches, with the only RCC win coming from freshman Monica Carrillo.

“Monica was a standout,” Bonzoumet said. “She played great against someone overpowering and held her own.”

Carrillo’s match was the only one to go to three sets.

The long wait time between this and the previous game limited the chances for the team to condition. Service errors became a problem as the games progressed.

“The serve is super important, especially on a day like this,” Bonzoumet said. “I noticed as they were getting tired, they were making more errors on the serve.”

The errors were impactful enough that most of the Pirates players’ points came from double faults.

Ultimately, it led to the team’s defeat, but coach Bonzoumet was happy with what the team did well throughout the meet.

“They were better than us,” she said. “The girls played really well and I am very proud of them because that was the toughest competition we faced thus far this year.”

Bonzoumet explained that the Pirates will arguably be the toughest competition for the Tigers this season, and even though the team lost, it’s going in the right direction for the future.

RCC’s next games are on the road, with March 2 at Saddleback College being a rescheduled game from Feb. 23, and March 7 being at Cypress.