The Lady Roadrunners will take on the El Camino College Warriors today at the tennis courts at Rio Hondo.

This will be Rio’s third time taking on the Warriors, but history is definitely not on their side, as they’ve lost the previous two matchups 6-3 and 8-1, respectively. However, they’ll be going into this matchup with a little more pep in their step.

The team is coming off an impressive 6-3 win over Cerritos College March 14. It was a long time coming, but the Lady Roadrunners finally snapped a four game losing streak. Well, five if you count their match against Ohio Northern University (let’s not). Woohoo!

Coach Karen Unger was very pleased with the win, noting how much her players have improved over the season.

“We’re correcting bad habits,” she says. “We’re playing smarter, harder, and we’re cutting down on errors.”

Speaking of playing harder, freshman Heaven Diaz had an exhausting day, with one of her matches going on for a full hour. That’s a whole 60 minutes, folks. Thanks, Captain Obvious. You’re welcome.

“I had to push through it,” says Diaz of her exhausting match. “I wasn’t going to let my team down.”

And that she did…didn’t – she won her match. That’s the point being made.

But, as Coach Unger always says, the Lady Roadrunners can’t afford to be complacent. Nice win, yeah, but it’s only one game. There’s still three more to go. Speaking of which…

Those Warriors, man. Rio has a tough task ahead of them. But – BUT, your friendly neighborhood beat writer isn’t giving up hope. One of the factors in Rio’s favor is that they’re playing at home, where they’ve fared a little better against El Camino. They lost 6-3 in their first matchup (at home), but got it handed to them 8-1 when they traveled to El Camino for round two. So…third time’s the charm, right?

Fun fact: according to Coach Unger, El Camino has their tennis courts setup in a way that creates a wind tunnel, giving those Caminoans a unique home field advantage. Cool, but not so cool for the opposing team (very much cool, nonetheless).

If Rio shows the same level of focus they displayed against Cerritos and continues to cut down on errors, they’ll have a good chance of winning. So, fingers crossed everyone.

The match will take place at Rio’s tennis courts and start at 2 p.m. May the Force be with you, Lady Roadrunners. Kudos to whoever can spot the other – somewhat vague – Star Wars reference in the article.