For the second time, Cosumnes River College has women from the tennis team headed to state competition. Two years ago, Brianna Schmitgen and her doubles partner became the first players to make it to state. This year, the full team—consisting of only four players—has qualified for competition.

The Ojai Tournament lasts from April 25-28 in Ventura, Calif., and sophomore Taylor Osborne along with her partner, freshman Cassandra Gomez, qualified for both singles and doubles. Freshmen Angela Guererro and Lilana Seisa also qualified for doubles play at the competition.

Head coach Suzanne Stebbins said the women are hard workers and that it is an honor just to make it to state.

“They’re just super hard workers, they never give up, they try really hard,” Stebbins said. “I thought it was going to be kind of a down season with only four, we have to forfeit two every single match. But it turned into a really great season.”

The team has been practicing “almost every day” to improve their skills, Gomez said.

Gomez said that she was “working on doubles because there’s going to be a lot of good doubles teams there.”

Stebbins’ work with the team is paying off, as both Osborne and Gomez said that they feel they have a good chance at state.

“She’s (Stebbins) improved our game and changed our game to play against different types of opponents,” Osborne said.

While Osborne was all smiles in her interview before practice on Monday, she still said she was nervous.

“It’s scary, but I feel like I’m prepared enough for it,” Osborne said.

The team will have been traveling all day Wednesday to get to the tournament, leaving little time for practice, but Stebbins reinforced the idea that there wasn’t much that needs improvement.

“So really at this point, they’ve worked hard all season and they’re prepared completely,” Stebbins said. “It’s always hard with the nerves, and that’s when you’ve got to calm them and remind them to breathe and get through it. They’re experienced, competitive tennis players at this point so they’ve played a lot of competition all season.”