With a surplus of close losses littered throughout its season, the UC Davis women’s tennis team appears to be figuring things out at the right time.
Some tinkering with the doubles lineup brought about good results, as the Aggies took convincing wins over San Jose State University and Big West Conference foe UC Irvine.
“Sometimes it takes a while to get the right team, and it would have been nice to figure it out earlier, but better late than never,” Coach Bill Maze said.
UC Davis defeated the Anteaters by a 5-2 match score on Saturday and then downed the Spartans 6-1 on Sunday to improve its record to 9-11 and 4-2 in conference.
Saturday — UC Davis 5, UC Irvine 2
The Aggies lost to UC Irvine in the first round of the Big West Tournament last year, but quickly showed why they have been ranked as high as No. 58 in the nation this season.
UC Davis took down No. 66 UC Irvine by winning the doubles point to quickly jump ahead.
With a slight shift in the doubles teams, freshman Layla Sanders and sophomore Kelly Chui had an impressive showing in their 8-1 victory in the top slot.
“The team played great and rose to the occasion by winning the doubles point, which has been tough for us,” Maze said.
In singles play, junior Dahra Zamudio was first off the court with a 6-1, 6-3 win. The Anteaters took the next two matches on courts one and six, but UC Davis swept the rest on courts three, four and five.
“It’s clearly the biggest win of the year,” Maze said. “There were a lot of impressive performances throughout the lineup and everyone contributed.”
Sunday — UC Davis 6, San Jose State 1
In a non-conference match against the Spartans, UC Davis’s 6-1 win could be a sign of good things to come.
The Aggies won the doubles point once again, with senior Dahra Zamudio and sophomore Nicole Koehly winning for the second time in as many matches.
UC Davis seized five of the six singles matches to go up 6-0 with just junior Lauren Curry left on court. Curry had battled back to take the second set after dropping the first set, but came up a bit short in the close 6-4 third set.
Junior Nicole Koehly got a win at the No. 6 position, while Zamudio, Chui and Sanders all grabbed their second wins of the weekend. Zamudio won each of her four matches, going undefeated in singles and doubles on the weekend.
“It’s a nice luxury to have, to be able to have great confidence that we can win anywhere in the lineup,” Maze said. “We’re a contender for one of the top spots in conference because we are so deep.”
MATTHEW YUEN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
