Racking up wins Tennis surpasses combined wins from previous three years

Coming off a winless schedule last season, tennis has turned around and improved dramatically.

With a combined five wins in the previous three years, the team has already surpassed that in 2018.

Tennis has a 7-4 overall record, 6-2 in conference.

Tuesday's game solidified the second seed in the Western State Conference with a 7-2 win.

Long Dao was assistant coach of the program since 2010, before he took over as head coach in 2015.

Dao said he has scouted years for his current team, working to recruit local players from Los Angeles to help develop a bond between the teammates, creating a more solid team.

“Everyone’s local. A lot of these players know each other and are all friends prior to even joining the team,” Dao said. “I think I and the players around here take pride in the fact that all the players on this team are essentially locals.”

The team has eight players on the roster, which is the minimum number of players for a team.

Dao said that the last time tennis was in the WSC Tournament was two years ago. During that season, the team did not win any dual matches.

When playing in tournament, schools are allowed to enter eight single players and four double teams.

“Tennis is a little different in that the WSC becomes an individual tournament as opposed to a team event where each player is playing in an effort to advance to the Ojai Tournament, the “state” tournament,” Dao said.

Siraj Dail, player, said he can see a difference between this season and the last.

“It’s a new team. We have fresh players that are a lot better then what we had last season, so the level of the team is a lot higher than it was,” Dail said. (see tennis match page 8)