1. Hal Hargrave
2/8/15 TENNIS
Sports
761 Words
The No.15 women’s tennis team served their way into action with a 9-0 sweep of a victory over
Occidental College on Sunday at the Claremont Club to start off the 2015 season and Southern
California Intercollegiate Athletic conference play.
The Leopards start the season 1-0 overall and 1-0 in SCIAC.
“The season crept up on me fast this year and it didn’t really hit me until we start applying today
that we were actually in season,” senior Andrea Madrigal said. “But the fact that we came out
with a lot of energy and executed on the things that we needed to do was a good indicator of
where we are to start the season and that is definitely in a good place as a team.”
The Leopards started off the match with three straight wins in the three doubles matches.
The No. 1 doubles duo of senior Laina Matsuda and sophomore Bridget Etchegaray, were able to
take down the Tigers duo of junior Keilani Bonis-Ericksen and senior Sara Charney with a 8-4
win for the Leopards.

2. The No.2 doubles team of Madrigal and freshman Janae Chinn, as well as the No. 3 doubles duo
of sophomore Lauren Torres and junior Shenelle Trujillo each claimed a 8-0 decisive win in their
matches.
The Leopards finished second in conference last season losing to Claremont- Mudd- Scripps 5-4
in the finals and had three All-Americans setting the bar high this season.
“We came in with high expectations and knowing that this would be a favorable match for us so
that we could get our incoming freshmen and newbies accustom to the Leopard way,”
Etchegaray said.
In the doubles portion of the match the Leopards were able to tally off six straight wins from
each of their singles players, while only dropping one set in the process in one of the matches.
Etchegaray took down her opponent Charney 6-1, 6-3, but still felt there was room for
improvement heading into this weekend.
“I did struggle today in my match, my shot selection was not there that I would have liked, but I
was still happy that I was able to come out with a win,” Etchegaray said.
The top rated singles rated player for the Leopards, Madrigal and Matsuda of the Leopards
defeated Occidental’s Ericksen and freshman Samantha Ferrell 6-0, 6-3 in their respective
matches.

3. Torres for La Verne defeated senior Amber Gadsden, in three sets 1-6, 6-2, 1-0 dropping the
only set of the day for the Leopards, but still in victory.
“We did lose two paramount players last year who graduated so that was a big blow to the team,
but it is our job to step up and fill their shoes,” Madrigal said. “We did bring in a couple new
girls who I’m confident in that bring a lot of energy ever single day so I’m confident that we can
finish top of league again this season.”
Nervous for her first-ever collegiate match, Chinn stepped up in a big way for the Leopards
where she was able to take down freshman Lauren Hutkin 6-0 in two straight sets.
“It was such an awesome feeling today to get my first match under my belt as a Leopard. It
definitely was the right way to start off my college career,” Chinn said. Sure“Hopefully I can
maintain that for the rest of the season. I would like to win 75 percent of my matches this year
because that would ensure that I’m helping out the team in a good way.”
Trujillo, the last to play for the Leopards, defeated her opponent sophomore Isabella Korfmann
with a 6-1, 6-2 two set win.
The Leopards will travel up the coast this weekend to Oregon where they will have a pair of
matches at 3 p.m. Saturday at George Fox, and 2 p.m. Sunday at Linfield.

4. “We will take the season as it comes, but as much as we talk about trying to duplicate what we
did last year I think as a team our goal is to do even better,” Etchegaray said. “This is a new
season and we have new things to work on in regards to the things that we did last year. We do
have our goals this year for how we want to do in each and every match, so as long as we are up
to par with obtaining those goals we are going to be just fine.”
Hal Hargrave can be reached at hallett.hargrave@laverne.edu
Sources
1. Bridget Etchegaray, sophomore, tennis player, bridget.etchegaray@laverne.edu, 714-496-
3366
2. Andrea Madrigal, junior, tennis player, andrea.madrigal@laverne.edu
3. Janae Chinn, freshman, tennis player, janae.chinn@laverne.edu