American River College men’s tennis head coach Bo Jabery-Madison believes the best thing that came from the 2014 season was what the team took away from it.

“We had a great group of guys who I think worked as hard as they possibly could, pushed themselves to the physical limits (and) mental limits every day,” said Jabery-Madison.

Its season ended with a loss in the NorCal Finals with a 5-0 loss at Foothill College.

It started the season with a perfect 9-0 record, sweeping six of its opponents by scores of  9-0.

The team would finish the regular season with a record of 15-1, losing its only game of the regular season to Foothill 5-4.

The two losses for the team this season were both against Foothill, which head coach Bo Jabery-Madison said is because Foothill is simply a better team than ARC.

“They have more experience. Seven out of their top eight players are international players and one All-American in their top eight,” said Jabery-Madison. “We’re competing with teams that are recruiting from the entire world and so the fact that we are as competitive as we are with them.”

It would close out the regular season by sweeping Folsom Lake College, Modesto Junior College, and Chabot College by scores of 9-0 in consecutive games.

Seppi Capaul, Jimmy Giovannini, Nic Atkinson, Ryan Wilson, John Foote, and Dylan King each competed in individual matchups in Ojai, California.

Capaul and Giovannini each advanced to the third round before losing out to College of the Desert.

Nic Atkinson and Ryan Wilson defeated Bakersfield College by scores of 6-4 and 6-3 before they fell to Grossmont College in the third round.

John Foote injured his ankle in his match with partner T.J. Aukland and was replaced by Dylan King.

Foote began the season with a lower back injury, and said he played his best tennis later in the year.

ARC was forced to retire after Aukland also injured his ankle in a match with Cerritos, and Cerritos won its match.

In doubles, Capaul and Giovannini defeated College of the Desert, winning the 10-point match tiebreak 10-8.

Jabery-Madison said the depth that some of the Southern California teams had presented difficulties for ARC.

“Seppi, as dominant as he is in Northern California, there’s probably on a given day 10 guys in the South who could play even with him and that makes it tough,” said Jabery-Madison.

The win advanced ARC to the quarterfinal, matching the best result by an ARC doubles team since 1992.

Jabery-Madison said he believes the team’s biggest accomplishment was that his team got everything out of its season that it could.

Freshman Dylan King said he believed the team came together well during the season.

“We came out, grinded every single day, just came really close as a team and that translated to success on the court,” said King.