The Eastern Arizona College tennis team, which was overpowering all season, ran into plenty of other dominant programs at the NJCAA Tennis Nationals in Tucson on May 4-8.

The Lady Gila Monsters finished 14th overall, which was a slight improvement over their 17th-place finish in 2007.

EAC head coach Eric Arrington said all season long that his team had a good chance to place in the top 10, so he was disappointed.

The EAC No. 1 doubles team of Laone Botshoma, front, and Gia Mulky advanced to the finals of the consolation bracket at the NJCAA Tennis Nationals. Photo by Patti Wren

“We didn’t play as well as we should have,” he said.

Eastern received a very difficult draw in the tournament, according to Arrington. The seeding process for the tourney isn’t exactly objective or researched thoroughly.

Most players at the tourney had a first-round bye, which meant their first match was in the round of 32.

Laone Botshoma, EAC’s No. 1 singles player, won her round of 32 match easily with a 6-0, 6-0 thumping of Kayla Arbuthnot of Lewis & Clark Community College (Illinois).

Botshoma led her round of 16 match over No. 8 seed Ashley Irvin of Tyler Junior College (Texas) 6-3 after the first set, but Irvin came back to win the next two sets 6-4 and 6-2.

No. 5 Shaka Orr and No. 6 Jessica Smith also won their round of 32 matches but lost in the round of 16.

Orr showed toughness in gutting out a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 win over Morgan Whitmire of Seminole State College (Oklahoma).

No. 2 Gia Mulky, No. 3 Morgan Maylen and No. 4 Meghan Skinner all lost their first round matches in straight sets.

Mulky won two matches in the consolation bracket to advance to the quarterfinals before she lost. Maylen also reached the quarterfinals in the consolation bracket, and Skinner made it to the semifinals.

In No. 1 doubles, Botshoma and Mulky lost their first round match 0-6, 6-7 (5-7) in the winners’ bracket but advanced all the way to the finals in the consolation bracket. They beat Glendale Community College (8-6), Central Alabama Comm-unity College (8-4) and Cecil Community College from Maryland (8-1) before losing to Meridian Community College (Mississippi) 6-8 in the finals.

After dropping a tough three-setter in the first match of the winners’ bracket, the No. 2 doubles team of Maylen and Skinner advanced to the semifinals in the consolation bracket.

EAC’s No. 3 doubles team, Orr and Kim Williams, moved on to the round of 16 in the winners’ bracket after a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the first round. They lost 0-6, 2-6 to Hillsboro Community College (Florida) in the round of 16.

Hillsboro went on to win the National Championship with 45 total points. Tyler Junior College was second (44), and Lee College (Texas) was third with 43. EAC was 14th out of 36 teams with 21.5 points.