Ben Savallo
Sports Editor
Men’s and Women’s Apache Tennis have entered the postseason ranked No. 1 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and have begun playoffs with a strong start. After traveling to Plano, TX for the 2017 Southwest JUCO tournament on April 14-15, the women’s team came away with a clean sweep in all events and the men were two events from a perfect weekend.
“I think we’ll have a lot of enemies this year,” said freshman tennis player Jorge Martinez. “Maybe we’ll be playing in Nationals in Plano against three teams, they’re going to be together screaming and saying everything to us because we’re undefeated. … If we lose, they’re going to be happy.”
Martinez was one of the many TJC athletes that placed first in their flight or their specific round. This tournament comprised of eight different flights for singles and then four other flights for doubles on both the men’s and women’s side.
No. 1 ranked JUCO tennis player in the nation Ferran Calvo started out the day for the Apaches with a win over his opponent Andres Graterol. For women’s, the freshman out of England Jasmine Asghar began with a victory over Alex Gilbert. Kolani Soli and Jorge Martinez both got the victories in flight two for TJC followed by victories by Enrique Pardo and Montana Moore in flight three.
In flight four for women’s, Oceane Garibel came away with the win while her counterpart, Reid Feehan, took the victory for men’s in flight four.
“It’s pressure and stress every single match, every single day, every single match. There’s always that pressure to win and my confidence is okay but I need to work on a lot,” said Garibel on her confidence heading into Plano.
For flights five through eight in the women’s division, TJC added four more victories from Yuna Ito, Elena Tendero, Mekeila Erspramer and Michelle Walker. As for the men’s division, TJC received four more victories as well from Rahul Manoah, Philip Franken, Drew Brown and Adolfo Arroyo to end the day for the singles.
On the second day, the men’s doubles were highlighted by Ferran Calvo and Enrique Pardo who ran away with the flight one men’s double competition. In flight two, Alejandro Hayen and Jorge Martinez took first and in flight three, Chris Anders and Aaron Westerlund placed second while Reid Feehan and Philip Franken took first in flight four.
For the women’s doubles Jasmine Asghar and Yuna Ito placed first in flight one, Montana Moore and Kolani Soli placed first in flight two, Oceane Garibel and Michelle Walker got first in flight three while Mekeila Espramer and Elena Tendero took first in flight four.
Also, on the second day to finish the women’s singles competitions, all of TJC’s ladies placed first in each of their flights after all of them went a perfect three for three on the weekend.
In flight one for men’s, Ferran Calvo couldn’t get it done against the No. 3 ranked JUCO tennis player in the nation and dropped his second game of the tournament to Carlos Anez who went on to place first in their flight. The rest of the men’s tennis team placed first in all seven of their respective flights only losing that one match to Anez.
TJC now looks towards Laredo, TX for the 2017 Region XIV Championships on April 21-22 with hopes of more of the same from Plano.
