The Fresno City College women’s tennis team traveled to their university neighbors playing an exhibition match against nationally ranked Fresno State. State showed why they are ranked number 24 in the nation by winning all of their double and singles competitions. As much as this was a loss for the Rams, they considered it more of a learning experience.
The Bulldogs maintained control of the doubles matches, separating themselves from the Rams by winning every match without losing a single set in the process. Head coach for FCC Chantel Wiggins, a former Fresno State alumni seeing the difference of her team and where they stand playing against Division 1A schools, and seeing how her team can grow from this matchup moving forward.
“This was a very tough match as Fresno State is one of the best teams in the country right now and it showed during this match. It was awesome to have this match to see where we are and how we can grow from this to get to where we want to be.” said Wiggins.
The exhibition match between the two Fresno schools started in doubles competition with some of the best pairings the city of Fresno has to offer.
The matches started with State taking control, playing aggressive demonstrating how they flowed as a team; as they were able to get really strong serves, vollies and mastering counters to keep the ball in play.
The match moved to singles competition, which is known as the Rams ace in the hole when when it comes to closing out matches but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make a comeback against the highly ranked Bulldogs.
By playing heads up mentality being able to scramble to live balls fast, strong sevres and keep the tempo they set for themselves during double. Fresno State won all of the single matches, but not all of them were easy wins the final two matches came down to a 1-2 set difference, proving that the Rams were tough and mean in their own right and won’t go down so easily.
Despite losing this exhibition match Maria Ochoa sees this match more of a learning curve of her own game and what she wants it to be.
“They were a very tough team, as i see a higher level of tennis is and I will try to improve my game to get to that kind of level.” said Ochoa.
Even Though this match resulted in a lose for the Rams, coach Wiggins like always is taking what they learned from this match and implying it to their future matches. As their next big match as they enter conference play in the Big Eight southern tournament, which they are confident to win that as it would lead to their ultimate goal of a state title.
“It is awesome to have great competition as it puts us in perspective of where we are, and where we need to be in order to win state.” said Wiggins.
