Tuesday, Feb. 13 the Rio Hondo women’s tennis team managed to earn its first victory of 2019 after defeating the Cypress College Chargers 6-3 at Rio Hondo College.

Kicking off head coach’s Karen Unger’s 19th season as Roadrunners women’s tennis instructor, it took Rio’s second game to get Unger yet another win during her long career as coach. And despite the early victory, coach Unger is aware of the challenges that will arise as the season goes.

“It’ll be a year of getting better as the days go by,” coach Unger said while watching her no. 3 squad Heaven Diaz and Samantha Martinez on Court 5 on Rio Hondo’s tennis courts. “And we have more than enough players on the team which is a great positive.”

Unger believes that competition from four-year schools for the best tennis players in the area along with a relatively small amount of tennis players from the Whittier area has made her job as tennis coach a bit difficult. But the energy and positivity in her voice showed hope for her squad which carries talented players like Jesielle Valles and Jane Quach.

Quach and Valles both won their singles matches and, as a team, formed the no. 1 couple in the doubles phase of the game against the Chargers to defeat Cypress’ first team as well.

The Lady Roadrunners will be back on the clay Tuesday, Feb. 19 as they host Mt. San Jacinto at 2 p.m.