Bakersfield College women’s tennis has started strong this season, winning two matches and taking first in the tournament.

BC opened the season at College of the Sequoias on Jan 26 beating the Giants 8-1.

The Renegades played Fresno City College on Feb. 1 at home, thoroughly trouncing the Rams 9-0.

“We came out as I hope the girls come out all the time, expecting to battle and expecting to have to really work for your points,” said assistant Coach Charles Provencio. “[Fresno] traditionally have had a really strong team, this year it was a young team, they were all freshmen. So we kind of had a little advantage experience wise”

“All of the girls played fantastic. Very tough mental tennis, they stayed in the points, they didn’t give anything up, and overall I think they should be pretty proud of the way they played today.”

On Feb. 8. BC played Antelope Valley College as part of a tournament and won 9-0. Following that game, on Feb. 9. BC beat College of the Sequoias 8-0. The third doubles match was called for time.

The final match of the tournament was against Cerritos College, and again BC won 5-4. In the singles Nancy Ramirez, Leah Stewert, and Jackie Griffin won their matches. Nancy Ramirez and Leah Stewert won their doubles match, as did Jackie Griffin and Karissa Coronel.

After the tournament, Coach Lynott expressed satisfaction with the teams play, though she notes that the team might have won a couple more matches if they’d come in fresh.

“We’ve had a long weekend of a lot of tennis and I think we were pretty tired. . . and I think that showed a bit in a couple of the matches that we played.”

Women’s tennis has their next game on Feb. 19 at home against Glendale College at 2pm.

Men’s tennis played against Fresno as well on Feb 2 but lost 9-0. “We were not completely surprised by that result, they’re probably the toughest team we’ll have to play all season,” said Teri Lynott, the tennis head coach. “They’re deeper, according to their coach he felt we played a very good match and we’ll be competitive in our conference.”

Regardless of the loss Coach Lynott is still looking forward to the season.

“I know it’s hard to sometimes take a loss, but I think we were encouraged by the performance out there, even though we did lose. We know how good they are and we played some very good matches against them, even though they won them.”

The next match for the men’s team is on Feb. 15 at Modesto College.