Get out your tennis rackets and get to the courts, because here comes the Spring 2008 men’s tennis season. After finishing the 2007 season off with a dual match record of 9-7 and finishing fifth at the Pacific Coast Conference, the men’s tennis team is back and ready to play.

And they have a very busy schedule this season, with matches at least twice a week until April 10.

After four straight home games, they will finally be going on the road. First, they traveled to El Centro to face Imperial Valley on Feb. 21. Then on Feb. 26 and 28, they will travel to face Palomar and Victor Valley, respectively.

The Olympians then go home to play against Southwestern on March 4 before traveling to Grossmont on March 6. On March 11, Mesa will face City College here before going back on the road to face Mt. San Jacinto on Feb. 13.

The Olympians will then be off for spring break for 10 days before coming home for three consecutive home matches on March 25, March 27 and April 1.

They will face Imperial Valley, Palomar and Victor Valley for the second time before heading back on the road to face Southwestern on April 3.

The Olympians final home contest will be on April 8 against Grossmont before finishing off the dual match season against City on April 10.

“Mount San Jacinto is the pre-season favorite to win the conference along with Grossmont and then after that, it will still be very competitive,” said first year coach Michael Hootner.

This season, the team consists of seven new faces and one returning player. The new players are freshmen Zeeshan Amjad, Benjamin Asawa, Shane Cerney, Kongmeng Fang, Johnny Lu, Adrian Munoz and Harrison West, and the returning player is lone sophomore James VanHess.

“I think we’ll be competitive this year with a very balanced attack in our singles ladder as well as in doubles,” Hootner said.

Another sport just beginning its season is the softball team, which currently has a record of 8-7 and started their conference play during the week of Feb. 25. They are in the Pacific Coast Conference and play Southwestern College on Feb. 27 at 3 p.m. at Mesa.

“We have a great group of sophomores returning this season and they are all off to a tremendous start,” said coach Mary Bongard. “As a team we are hitting .351 with 14 Homeruns and 131 runs scored. I feel that we are off to a good start and I have a very positive outlook for this season. Our goal as a team is to go to playoffs which means we have to place 1st or 2nd in our conference so that is what we are striving to do.”

The sophomores this season are Alyssa Casiple, Hannah Chartier, Roxanna Heshmaty, Karina Martinez, Brittany Montorsi, Kat Moran, and Katie Schlein. A couple of the freshmen are Chelsea Herrera and Delores Lizarraga.

Casiple was selected player of the week on Feb. 13 for the Pacific Coast Conference, and was also named “Tough as Nails” player at the Green and Gold Tournament on Feb. 9.