The Women’s Tennis team had no answers for their opponent losing by a score of 8-1 to Santa Barbara on March 16.

“It hurts to lose but what are you going to do? They played hard, you can’t ask for anything more,” said Head Coach Bob Donaghy, speaking about his teams play.

The Vaqueros were absolutely outplayed. They lost the first eight matches, including all six singles matches and their first two doubles matches.

Glendale’s No. 1 rated doubles toughed it out to win their doubles match against Santa Barbara’s No. 1 rated doubles.

Donaghy talked about his team’s only win against Santa Barbara’s No. 1 rated doubles team. “We won it in their No. 1 doubles,” said the coach. “That’s better than losing 9-0. That shows they were fighting right down to the end.”

Glendale’s No. 1 rated, Sarah Aguilar lost 6-0, 6-4 against Santa Barbara’s (No. 11) Amy Sagraves.

Mineli Ebrahimi, (No. 3), lost 6-2, 6-4 to Santa Barbara’s Kendra Ross.

Glendale’s Sindi Concebida, (No. 5), lost 6-1, 6-2 to Anna Slyutova. Concebida just started playing tennis a year ago and never played on her high school team.

“I never played high school tennis and this is my first time playing competitively,” said Concebida. “I only started playing tennis a year ago so I think I’m doing pretty well.”

In the doubles they lost two out of three. The only match they won all day was the No. 1 doubles, Aguilar and Ebrahimi, beating Santa Barbara’s No. 1 doubles, 8-4.

“They were very consistent and had a lot of pace on their serve and their ground strokes,” explained Concebida about Santa Barbara’s strengths.

The Lady Vaqs have had a rough season going 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference. Donaghy stated that this conference is typically tough year in and year out.

“This is Southern California tennis,” said the coach. “It’s very tough and competitive. The Western State Conference is particularly tough. This is business as usual for this conference this year.”

Although this team is struggling in the tough conference, many players on this team are playing competitive tennis for their first time.

Donaghy explained his team’s struggle this year, “We’re a little experienced down in the four, five and six spots,” said Donaghy. “It’s costing us.”

Glendale’s Aguilar also spoke about the team, “Some of the girls are so fresh to tennis and they are starting to get in the groove of things.”

Despite their record, the Lady Vaqs are still playing for this season.

“The Santa Barbara team was pretty tough, but we were just as tough,” said Concebida. “We gave it our all and hopefully we will see them in conference and we will give them a run for their money.”

As for improving late in the season, everyone seems to be on the right page. Both coach Donaghy and the players are saying they need to improve their strength and stamina.
Donaghy says that his team has worked extremely hard, putting in a lot of hours and they are looking to get better every day. “We’re already putting in a lot of time, work and effort,” he said. “Plus they have jobs, and they have tough classes. They are going to have to find some time if they want to change something like what happened today.”
The Lady Vaqs play on Tuesday at Cerritos.