Men and women’s tennis finish season strong
On April 14 the Mesa Community College men’s tennis team finished the regular season with a 9-0 victory over Glendale Community College. With this win the T-Birds secured a spot in the Region l tournament after going 13-3 on the season. After this impressive season MCC men’s tennis is currently ranked fifth in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll. “Going into the Region l tournament the T-Birds are heavy favorites to win it all,” Director of Athletics John Mulhern said. “As a team I think the main thing that has lead to our success on the court is the team chemistry, even though we’re playing as an individual, it’s hard not to feel the momentum of the team and use it to are advantage,” said Max Wightman. For Andy Nguyen, the one win that will be stick out to him forever was the win over Division l Portland State. “It’s in the history book forever and no one can take that away from us,” said Andy Nguyen.
TANIA RITKO / Mesa Legend
Coming off a 6-1 defeat that same day, the team was able to bounce back and get that win over Portland State. “I think the one thing people don’t know about MCC tennis is that we put in a lot of time and hard work to win a national title for the school,” Nguyen said. “Going into tournament play I think we need to focus more on starting fast with good intensity,” Wightman said. We have a tendency to start slow sometimes and that’s something we can’t afford to do in tournaments if we want to win. “When we start out start strong, we can be a big threat for everyone to win that title,” said Nguyen. “For me getting to play in the tournament is obviously very exciting and respectable, but overall there would be a lot of disappointment if we didn’t bring back the first place trophy after are season so far,” said Wightman.”
Mesa started tournament play on April 27 in Glendale, Ariz. According to Nguyen, in the first day of tournament play the whole team advanced to the second day of the tournament. After it was all done, MCC tennis took 7 of 9 events in this tournament placing first and advancing to the tournament in Plano, Texas. The tourament will take place May 11 – 15 Then on the other side of the court the women’s team ended regular season play with a 9-6 record. The women’s team started off the season strong with a shutout on opening day, but soon lost two straight shutouts to Dixie State and Colorado State-Pueblo. In tournament play, the Women tied for second place. With this tie, the Lady T-Birds have advanced to the NJCAA Division I national championship.Which will be played in Tucson, Ariz. May 3-8.
