The Occidental men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in the ITA Division III Fall West Regionals at the Claremont Colleges Oct. 2 to Oct. 4. Playing in their first official tournament of the 2026-2027 season, the team came close to qualifying for the ITA Cup, a national level college tennis tournament.
According to Stephen Perkins, women’s tennis head coach and Director of Tennis at Occidental, practice began the first week of the 2026 semester in preparation for the Regionals.
“Tennis is interesting because we’re technically a split season sport,” Perkins said. “While most of our matches are in the spring, we do have some competition in the fall.”
According to Perkins, 2025 ITA Regionals finalists Greta Nagy (junior) and Elina Shalaev (senior) fell in their first match but went on to win the back draw.
“It’s disappointing to lose in the first round but [Nagy and Shalaev] did a really good job finishing out the tournament strong,” Perkins said. “It speaks to their chemistry together and their resilience.”
Perkins said he believes the strength of the tennis team as a whole contributes to the individual performance of players.
“I really don’t look at [tennis] as an individual sport,” Perkins said. “College level [tennis] is a team sport. Players knowing they are a part of something bigger than themselves really helps them, especially when challenges come up.”
According to Josiah Mones (junior), the team left at 6:45 a.m. each day to attend the tournament. Mones said the temperature spiked up to 100 degrees during the weekend of the tournament.
“Some of us had two matches, some of us only had one, but either way we’re there the whole day supporting everybody,” Mones said.
Perkins said training for the ITA Regionals focused particularly on strategy for both singles and doubles players.
“[In tennis] there are not ‘plays’ in the traditional sense of basketball or football,” Perkins said. “[It’s] essentially getting the team familiar with different formations they can use in doubles and different shots that we think are effective, [and] in singles, making sure people are trying to construct their points in an efficient way.”
According to Mones, the team visualized being in a match during practice to prepare mentally.
“[We’re] trying to keep the self-talk as positive as possible, especially going into the match,” Mones said. “You always want to start out on the right foot.”
Mones said he lost the first two games of every match he played in the tournament.
“Even if you go into the match with a really good mindset, you have to be prepared to be down or prepare to have a bad start,” Mones said. “It’s not just confidence in your own game, it’s confidence in your mental game.”
According to number five seed Tate Ransom (junior), who won the singles flight A back draw and qualified for men’s A doubles quarterfinals, the tournament was a good opportunity for the team to work on their technique.
“Tennis is a very mental sport,” Ransom said. “For most people there is a lot of self doubt involved. One thing that I’ve tried to work on is to play on my own terms […] and not worry about if that results in a win or a loss.”
Ransom said his mentality differs between singles and doubles matches.
“I’ve usually been better at singles because it is mentally easier for me to stay within myself,” Ransom said. “In doubles I’m trying to be more of a team player and think more about the mental teamwork aspect. Doubles is a lot about how you are meshing and working with your teammate.”
According to Ransom, ITA Regionals was the first tournament he played with doubles partner Alex Ichikawa (first year) as well as Ichikawa’s collegiate debut.
“We had good team chemistry, so it was a lot of fun to play with [Ichikawa],” Ransom said. “We enjoyed it a lot.”
Ichikawa said he knew their second match of the tournament was going to be challenging.
“It was definitely my favorite [match] of our run, just because we played the two seed and we had lost to them the practice match the week before,” Ichikawa said.
According to Ichikawa, keeping each other focused on the court led to the doubles team’s success.
“I like the team environment when you are with someone else,” Ichikawa said. “It’s harder to motivate yourself if you are out there alone.”
According to Perkins, the doubles team stayed calm despite the riled up crowd watching from the stands.
“[Ransom and Ichikawa] beat them in a hostile environment,” Perkins said. “The whole other team was watching and getting pretty rowdy, so it shows how they are as competitors and their ability to lift each other up and stay present.”
According to Ichikawa, the crowd’s energy encouraged him to play to the best of his ability and ultimately win the match.
“Hearing those chants gave me more motivation because I knew we had to finish the job,” Ichikawa said.
Ichikawa said he is anticipating a great rookie spring tennis season.
“College competition is fun,” Ichikawa said. “The competition is a lot higher than high school, so I’m really excited for the rest of the year.”
According to Ransom, while the team did not place in the finals of the ITA Regionals, they have a chance to compete in the NCAA Individuals in the spring.
“This was a good reminder of how we stack up against other SCIAC teams and what we need to do to improve and prepare for January,” Ransom said. “[We] got humbled sometimes and had some fun. It was a good challenge overall.”
Contact Sophie Ha at has@oxy.edu
