It's been a thrilling three days for the City College of San Francisco Women's Tennis team. This past weekend, six Rams competed in the Coast Conference Tennis Tournament: Ariel Xu, Christina Ling, Alanna Hale, Ananda Kong, Anh Duong, and Bernice Zhu.

In Singles, Thursday started with 30 players from six different colleges and by Saturday only two remained. City College's #1 player, Ariel Xu, battled against West Valley's #1 player, Abigail Prokter, in a grueling one and a half hour fight. The first set started with head to head deuces each game, and Xu found herself down 1-3. A quick pep talk from Head Coach Mary Graber gave Xu the encouragement to overpower her opponent and take the lead finishing the first set 6-4. The sun was hot and blazing at the start of the second set, but these tough conditions are when the Lady Rams perform best. With immense rigor, Xu pulled through and won the match 6-4, 4-0 after Prokter retired. The awards ceremony was emotional as Xu, a Chinese international student, said to the camera, "I love you, dad." Congrats to Xu, Coach Graber, and the Lady Rams. 

In Doubles, Thursday started with 14 doubles teams, and by Saturday only one declared victorious: Ariel Xu & Christina Ling. The #2 seed Xu and Ling were determined and ready to fight against the #1 seeded West Valley, Abigail Prokter and Lindsay Lee. After dominating the first set 6-0, Xu and Ling struggled in the second set, as the #1 seed were not going down without a fight. The atmosphere was intense. Fans were cheering and hearts were pumping. Each game was filled with long rallies, but through grit and perseverance, the Rams prevailed 6-0, 7-5, with a match time totaling over 2 hours. At the end, Xu and Ling were crowned the Coast Conference Doubles Champions! The level of hard hitting, long groundstroke exchanges was high quality and all four players proved why they deserved to be in the finals. Congrats to both teams!

The Lady Rams finished second in the Coast Conference, with a record of 10 wins and 2 losses in conference matches. And all six players who competed in the Coast Conference Tournament made it far enough in their bracket to earn a spot in the next match. They'll travel to Ventura/Ojai in two weeks to compete in the State Championship. Good luck Rams!