Pirates top Tigers 5-3 in SoCal Finals; earn finals rematch with Beavers
COSTA MESA -- When a team is 43-2 over the past two seasons, words like "payback" or "redemption" seem almost ridiculous to say. But, for the Orange Coast College women's tennis tennis team, they returned the favor on visiting Riverside City College with a 5-3 win over the Tigers in the Southern California Regional Team Finals on Saturday at the OCC Tennis Complex.
The win helped the top-seeded Pirates (22-1) right the wrong of this year's lone blemish -- a 5-4 loss to the Tigers at OCC on Feb. 29.
Next up for OCC, a rematch of last year's state championship matchup between the Pirates and the top-seed from Northern California -- American River College -- on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Ventura College.
"The girls played great tennis from the first to the last ball hit against Riverside," OCC head coach Chris Ketcham said. "We were good in all three doubles and all six singles matches and we had to be to defeat a very talented Riverside team. Both teams are very evenly matched so it came down to who played the critical points better and who handled their nerves and the pressure better."
As expected, this was going to be a battle down to the very end and the No. 3 Tigers (17-3) came ready to play.
After both teams earned 8-4 wins in doubles, a key early match came at No. 3 doubles as the duo of Camila Nelson and Merrit Dubourdieu took on the RCC pair of Monica Carrillo and Mimi Reynoso. A back-and-forth battle between two evenly-matched teams came down to a tiebreaker and there, Nelson and Dubourdieu managed to grab an 8-6 tiebreaker win to take the match 9-8, giving Coast a much-needed 2-1 lead in the overall score.
In singles play, five of the six matches went to a third set, bringing the drama to an all-time high. Both teams grabbed wins to give Coast a 3-2 advantage (Rhea Gagnepain with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win at No. 4), but at Nos. 3 and 6 singles, Sipiora (No. 3) and Leanne Pascua (No. 6) dropped their opening sets, only to come back and pull out key victories. Sipiora topped Denise Campbell, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, while Pascua earned a 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Kaden Richards. Pascua's victory sealed the deal for Coast, giving the hosts the fifth-and-final point needed.
"We won a nervy, tight doubles at #3 in a tiebreaker with Camila/Merrit and Olivia at #3 and Leanne at #6 singles both came back from a set down to pull out wins," Ketcham said. "It's a great feeling as a coach to see your team step up and play great when the situation calls for it. I'm so proud of how hard the girls have worked and competed this season."
The Pirates final match of the season will come against the defending-champion Beavers (18-0), who topped OCC in last year's state championship finals, 5-3. Winners of 25 straight matches, Ketcham knows what awaits his team, but knows the task is not impossible.
"We are excited and looking forward to playing a strong American River team," Ketcham said. "They have several players returning from the team we lost to in the state final last year. It'll be a challenge, but our team will be up for it and ready to compete."
