Susan Te Named Competitor Of The Month For April

Stockton, Calif. - Freshman Susan Te, a walk-on from Davis, California, has proven to be an asset to the Pacific Tigers women's tennis team.  In the month of April, Susan was challenged as an athlete.  Her drive and her determination to win enabled her efforts to be noticed.  The Big West Tournament at Indian Wells was a test of not only physical fitness, but of mental toughness as well.  Susan Te passed both tests and competed at the top of her game.  Susan Te competed in two epic matches; one versus UNR and the second in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament at Indian Wells.  

In Te's match against UNR, she was down 3-4 in the third set after three hours on the court and began cramping.  She had to battle with leg cramps for the rest of the match, but she changed her tactics to shorten the points. Susan managed to bring the match to 6-6 and came within 2 points of winning it all in a deciding tie- break but to no avail. That match lasted almost four hours.  

More importantly however, in the quarterfinals of the Big West Championships at Indian Wells, she prevailed in a nearly four hour long match against No.4 seeded and nationally ranked UC Santa Barbara. Susan lost the first set at the No. 5 singles position in a tiebreak after an hour and a half.  By this time every other singles match was already over.  With the team scores dead even at 3-3 her match would determine who would go on in the tournament.  After battling for another two and a half hours she secured the team win with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 win to get the Tigers into the semi-finals against the No.1 seed Long Beach State.  Susan is a walk-on who earned her way into the singles line-up playing ahead of three scholarship athletes.  Her guts and determination and "refuse to lose" attitude could not go unnoticed.