By Regina Jimenez

Women’s tennis team captain Amber Howser. (Chris Dietrich)

By Regina Jimenez

Passion…

Determination…

Desire…

These are just a few words that explain what a success the RCC women’s tennis team has had this season.

The game of tennis is easily misunderstood.

Many athletes wish to be understood on what it really takes to become a great athlete in tennis.

Tennis is played like no other sport. In particular, Amber Howser, the team captain for the RCC women’s tennis team said that playing the game of tennis takes a lot of skills and talent, as well as constant body conditioning.

This season, RCC proved that Howser was right. The Tigers worked for everything they needed to have a successful season.

“We’ve done really well this season,” said RCC’s head coach Nikki Bonzoumet. “We went out and played hard, every game. We ended up being undefeated in pre-season.”

Bonzoumet is going on to complete her seventh season coaching here at RCC has had quite some experience in playing tennis herself.

Bonzoumet attended La Sierra High School where she earned All-Sunkist League. After high school, she attended RCC where she also played tennis. In her freshman year, she aided the Tigers to a 12-0 record as well as many more accomplishments.

“I played tennis here at RCC and earned a full-ride scholarship to Northern Arizona University,” Bonzoumet said.

After completing her successful collegiate tennis career she went on to coaching the game.

“Coach Bonzoumet is very supportive and pushes us as athletes to do our best,” Howser said. “She really is knowledgeable in the game of tennis, and she is probably the best coach out here.”

Coming to a close with the Tigers season, they are at an overall record of 13-3 with two games to go starting from the March 31 loss to the University of Alberta.

“Last year we had some complications beating Saddleback, as they took us down by beating us with their victory,” Howser said. “But this season we are much stronger and we came really close to a victory against Saddleback.” On April 6, the Tigers compete against Orange Coast, the No.1 team in the conference.

As individuals, the women on the RCC tennis team strive to be the best and their hard work pays off for their success.

“As a team we want to make it to CIF and hopefully go to the state finals,” Howser said.

The RCC women’s tennis team has what it takes to become successful in their college tennis career.

“Before each competition, we all group together as a team and talk about the strategies that we are going to use to win that day,” Howser said. “After that we all stretch and warm-up by playing one-on-one.”

Tennis may not be exactly what you would define as a team sport, but they are a team at heart.

“We get along great despite our age differences, considering that the team has about five freshmen and four sophomores,” Howser said.