WTEN | Gaels Bring Experience, Talent Into 2014 Season
1/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MORAGA, Calif. -- On paper, the Saint Mary's women's tennis team has plenty working in its favor as it prepares to begin the 2014 season Friday at the Cal Winter Invitational in Berkeley.
The Gaels return four all-West Coast Conference performers, including 2013 WCC Player of the Year Jenny Jullien. Four members of last season's singles lineup are back, and two doubles teams also return from a team that earned Saint Mary's fourth-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and claimed a WCC regular season championship.
Of course, matches aren't played on paper, and the real test begins this week with the first match action for head coach Lisa Alipaz's squad. The Gaels debuted at No. 37 in the first Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings of the season thanks to a strong returning core and a pair of exciting newcomers.
Jullien returns atop the lineup for her final season in Moraga, and the No. 7-ranked player in the country set the stage for one last run by creating more Saint Mary's history this fall.
She reached the finals of the ITA Northwest Regional and participated in the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the first Gaels tennis player ever to do either. Add that to an impressive junior season that saw Jullien join Alex Poorta as the only Saint Mary's players ever to win WCC Player of the Year and expectations are certainly high for the Gaels' top player.
"She had an incredible fall season and she knows that she'll be the player everyone focuses on when they play us," Alipaz said. "The challenge for Jenny now is to continue improving each day with each practice and each match. She's a senior now and she knows what it will take to be successful, both personally and as a team."
Jullien will have plenty of help, with All-WCC honorable mention singles performers Danielle Flores and Jade Frampton also back in the mix this year. Flores spent the 2013 season at No. 3 singles and Frampton played No. 4. Also returning are last season's No. 5 Catherine Leduc, who scored the match-winning point in SMC's upset of Stanford last year, and 2013 All-WCC honorable mention doubles performer Elizabeth Searl.
The Gaels also welcome two definite talents in sophomore Jamie Pawid and freshman Parminder Kaur. Pawid joins the Gaels after transferring from Hawai'i and the Castro Valley, Calif. native comes back to her native Bay Area to restart her a career that saw her win multiple North Coast Section titles in singles. In one season at Hawai'i, Pawid went 21-10 in singles, playing mostly at No. 3.
Kaur, a 5-foot-8 native of Chandigarh, India, brings plenty of international experience to the table, having been ranked in the top five of both the under-14 and under-16 classiciations of the All India Tennis Association.
The influx of talent will go a long way toward filling the void created by the graduation of stalwart No. 2 singles player Catherine Isip. As accomplished in doubles as she was in singles, Isip filled the role of senior leader for the Gaels in 2013 and earned All-WCC first team honors.
"I think we have the pieces to be good again and our players have worked hard this offseason to get where they need to be," Alipaz said. "We're still figuring out the lineup and replacing an accomplished player like Catherine (Isip) isn't going to be easy, but I like the talent we have, especially with good additions like Jamie and Parminder."
As always, Saint Mary's won't lack for challenges throughout the non-conference season. The Gaels will play four teams ranked in the Top 10 to begin the season -- Stanford, Florida, UCLA and USC -- and all four matches will come outside Moraga. Of the 11 confirmed teams Saint Mary's will play in non-conference action (one more is TBA), 10 are nationally ranked to begin the season.
And, WCC play won't be any picnic either as the conference is again strong, with Pepperdine and Santa Clara having shared the championship with the Gaels last season.
"Going to the NCAA Tournament four years in a row is a great accomplishment and these players have established a tradition that I know they want to keep going," Alipaz said. "If the girls continue working on their game, then the talent is still there. Our success will be determined by how hard we work every day."
VB | Tyler Hildebrand Presser, 10-13-25
Monday, October 13
VB | Highlights vs. Santa Clara, 10-11-25
Saturday, October 11
VB | Tyler Hildebrand Presser Post Santa Clara, 10-11-25
Saturday, October 11
VB | Highlights at Pacific, 10-9-25
Thursday, October 09
