Leopards Drop First Two Matches At SCIAC Tournament

The University of La Verne tennis team dropped its first two matches at the SCIAC Women's Tennis Championships on Friday.

La Verne, which entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed and ranked No. 14 in the West Region, fell to Cal Lutheran in the first round in Thousand Oaks before suffering a second round setback to Occidental on the campus of Cal State Northridge.

Against the No. 8 seed Tigers, the Leopards trailed 2-1 after the doubles competition. Oxy held off the Leopards by winning four of the six singles matches, two of which were decided in three sets.

The two victories in singles came from Laina Matsuda at No. 1 and Brooke Hines at No. 3.  Matsuda topped Oxy's Krishnaveni Subbiah 6-4, 6-2 with Hines also winning in straight sets, defeating Frances Hutton 6-1, 7-5.  The lone doubles win came from Tarika Krishnamurthy and Carly Tucker at No. 2, who teamed to defeat Hutton and Rachel Wachstein, 8-6.

The Leopards opened the day with a 5-0 defeat to the tourney host and No. 4 seed Regals.  CLU claimed all three doubles matches and won the first two singles contests when play was halted as each of the first round matches of the tournament were played to decision.

La Verne will face No. 7 seed Caltech in the seventh-place match slated for a 10 am start Saturday at Cal State Northridge.

FIRST ROUND:  CLU 5, LV 0

SECOND ROUND: OXY 6, LV 3