Pomona-Pitzer women’s tennis began their SCIAC season dominating at Whittier, and they ended it in similar fashion. After a season of dogged consistency, even in the face of an array of injuries, say hello to your 2010 SCIAC champions. The Sagehens finish the season with an overall mark of 16-3 and a perfect 10-0 record in SCIAC. Indeed, their domination of league play was so thorough throughout the lineup that in the regular season and playoff games, Sagehen players scored 82 of the possible 86 points. In other words, only four times in eighty-six chances was an opposing player able to defeat a Sagehen.P-P wrapped up its perfect league play by defeating rival Redlands in the SCIAC tournament finals 7-2. It was the second time that they dispatched the Bulldogs in the past week, and, characteristic of the team’s consistency, it was the second time they did it 7-2. To make the final, the Sagehens trounced Caltech and Occidental, 5-0 and 9-0 respectively.

Next step for the Hens will be the Ojai Tournament, an open that gives them an extra weekend of tune-up before the Western Regional tournament. P-P is the top-ranked team in the West and the favorite to emerge from the bracket to qualify for nationals. The team boasts the numbers 2, 3, and 4 singles players in the region in Siobhan Finicane PO ‘10, Jamie Solomon PI ‘13, and Kara Wang PO ‘13, and they hope their depth will hold out. The other main competition for the Western title will be Chapman (ranked 12th nationally), Trinity (19th), and Redlands (20th).

The Sagehens remained in the national top-10 for the entire year, and will end the regular season ranked 7th nationally. Having already played the two top teams in the country during the regular season (Amherst and Williams), the team will know what they face if they advance through the west. P-P lost to both Amherst (8-1 on Mar. 15) and Williams (7-2 on Mar. 24). However, the games occurred in middle of the team’s run of injuries, so with the team recovering they look forward to another chance.

However, the Sagehens are taking it one step at a time. Take, for example, the advances the team made in the brief span between clinching the regular season SCIAC title and the postseason SCIAC title.

With less than a week in between the matches against Redlands, P-P knew they had to focus on improving their errors from the last game, as well as determine where they could gain points against their competition. Both teams knew the weak points of the other, a factor which added to the Hens’ domination. P-P’s number-one doubles team of Solomon and Wang defeated the opposing team with a score of 8-5. Pomona sophomore Nicole Holsted also won the SCIAC match against Redlands, an exciting victory considering her loss to Redlands the previous week. From these two matches it appears the Hens really improved their skills and knew exactly how to play in order to win the SCIAC tournament.

The Hens’ rivalry with Redlands goes back many years.

“Two years ago, [Redlands] won league, and we won the tournament,” said Ariel Shanholt PO ’12. “They made t-shirts that said ‘2008 SCIAC Champs’ when we played them last spring. Last year, we won league, and Redlands won the tournament. When they played us last week, they wore shirts that said ‘2009 SCIAC Champs.’”

This year, however, the Sagehens will be wearing the SCIAC champions shirts. With their win in the SCIAC tournament, the Hens have a spot in the regional tournament, where they will be entering as the number-one team in the west.