Rams women’s tennis fare well in Big 8 conference tournament

The Fresno City College women’s tennis reached the finals in doubles and singles competition in the Big Eight conference tournament on April 2, while bringing home a singles championship for the Rams. The Rams hope to take what they achieved in this tournament into the postseason for a state title.

The tournament featured four of the top players from each school from the Big Eight conference comes together in a three day five-round event to show the best tennis that the conference has to offer.

The Rams came into this tournament with a 12-1 record and recently finished playing an exhibition match with Fresno State on March 26, making them being well prepared to have a strong outing in this tournament.

The tournament started of with doubles competition as the Rams hit the court with the pairings of Mari Ochoa and Milah Ryland, as well as Bianca Muniz and Jana Misirli.

The pairing of Ochoa and Ryland made it through the first four rounds with each not losing a single set to advance, while Muniz and Misirli had an early exit in the first round.

The doubles finals match were set up as Rams Ochoa and Ryland would go up against a tough Modesto team that had a similar climb to the reach the finals.

Both Finals matches started with both teams showing their best, with each team countering serves, volleys and recovery shots to a standstill with Modesto only having a single set difference between the two.

The game remained close the Rams doubles showed sparks of closing the gap by getting a much needed point but unfortunately it wasn’t enough as Modesto closed out the finals with a 2-0 victory over the Rams.

“It was tough as we have played them before and they were feeling better head into the match then we were, and we couldn’t capitalize when we need it to.” said Ochoa.

Singles matches featured all four of the Rams playing at top form during their opening matches as three out of the four advanced to the quarterfinals with matching scores of 6-0, weeding out the competition in their respective matches.

Finals of the singles competition would come to two Fresno City athletes: Milah Ryland –who was apart of the finals in doubles– against teammate Raquel Gonzales insuring a Rams singles conference title; the question was who was it going to be?

The battle of the Rams squared off as similar to the doubles finals match, the singles match started off at a standstill.

With the teammates knowing each other on and off the court, they have become accustomed to each other play styles.

The match went on until Ryland started to take control of the opening series by delivering aggressive counter serves that were too much for Gonzales to keep up with, which lead to Ryland winning the first set of the match.

The second set of the match saw a sudden turnaround for Gonzales as she took the first series in the second set with the use of quick counter serves, hitting balls on the opposite ends of the court.

Gonzales had the early edge on the second set, but it was short lived as Ryland quickly recovered by winning the next five series, closing out the second set and the match with a 2-0 set victory for the Big Eight conference singles title. The win marked her first conference singles title of her collegiate career.

“Playing against my one of my teammates was kind of tough as yes we are teammates we both want to win, but you don’t want to make enemies on your team.” said Ryland. “I felt pretty good winning singles, but now I just have to take this to the postseason and try to do well there.”

Rams head coach Chantel Wiggins was very happy with the performance that she got from her team with a majority of her roster finishing high in the tournament, which determines the seating heading into the postseason.

“It was really good to see our team do so well in this tournament, but since we are looking for a state title we have to expect it.” said Wiggins.