On Saturday, January 30th, as part of UBC Tennis’ outreach programs, both the UBC Women’s and Men’s Tennis Teams invited out top BC juniors to the UBC Tennis Center for the annual UBC vs TBC competitive exhibition match. The event included some great matchups, as well as an informal info session on what to expect playing University tennis at UBC. On the womens end of things, the T-birds took the match 4-3, an improvement from their 3-4 loss in their previous meeting.
The Women’s team came out of the gate strong in doubles. On court 1, the first time pairing Madison Fan and rookie Crystal Sher defeated Madeline Anne Nolan and Jiya Ghunman 8-4. On both Court 2 and 3, pairings Viktoria Abanos and Julia Rees and Audrey Chu and Rahat Mangat each took their pro-sets 8-2 against teams Rebecca Jouzy/Lilian He and Paige Rothwell/ Felina Yang respectively.
Singles was a slower start for the T-birds. On court no. 1, team veteran Fan fell a close 6-3,6-4 to Jouzy. On court 5 and 6, Audrey Chu and Rachael Kaluza also fell to opponents Sarah Lang-Gould and Alexandra Mandewo 6-0,6-3 and 6-4,6-4 respectively. But later into the afternoon, the T-birds retaliated, Abanos taking an impressive 6-2,6-2 victory over Ghunman on Court 2, and Rees overtaking Rothwell 7-5,6-1 on court 4. It was Sher who closed out the event, clinching the final point with a 6-4,6-4 victory over Elise Zekree on Court 3.
After the match, Fan shared: “It was great to be able to compete again after not having many matches these past couple of years! I hope that those who attended from tennis BC had a positive experience and I am looking forward to hopefully seeing some of them on our team next year”.
Overall, it was a great match-up for the Women’s Team, providing a sneak peek of the rising talent, and potential recruits in seasons to come. It was a solid outing for the T-birds heading into their biggest matches of the season in the coming weeks. Next in store for the UBC Women’s Tennis Team is regionals on February 11th and 12th, where the T-birds will face UVic and SFU at the UBC Tennis Center.
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