By Ryan Menzie
Signal Sports Writer
The Valencia Vikings (13-5, 6-0) beat the winless Castaic Coyotes 17-1 on Wednesday. Despite the lopsided victory, Vikings girls tennis coach Darrell Peries sees the improvement in the Coyotes and sees the things his team could work on as they prepare for West Ranch.
“Our goal is to try to do better than we did in the first round,” said Peries. “Overall, everyone is improving and I just tell them to treat every match the same way. Our next match is going to be against West Ranch, but we go into every match the same. My goal is to develop everyone we have.”
Peries went through his entire rotation but only dropped one set against the Coyotes, a 6-7 loss to Abbi Barquero in singles. Sydney Thay, the No. 1 singles player for the Vikings, won her only set 6-0 before being subbed out. Thay and the rest of the Vikings have their eyes set on their match against West Ranch.
“I felt pretty good because coach wanted me to be prepared for our match tomorrow against West Ranch,” said Thay. “Playing calm today and controlling my emotions, not going too big or too little, is ideal for our match tomorrow. Our main focus was to enjoy it before the match tomorrow. Everything has been building up for this match.
No. 2 singles player Sydney Tamondong and No. 3 singles player Skylar Braithwaite won their first sets 6-0 before being subbed out. In doubles, Jonam Welinkar and Tiffany Recalde won their first set 6-1 before being subbed out. No. 2 doubles Elli Wingo and Alexis Kuncar played together and won their first two sets 6-0, but Kuncar got subbed out for the last set. No. 3 doubles Maddie Muñana and Cami Schoenwetter stayed together and won all three sets (6-1, 6-0, 6-0).
The lone win for the Coyotes came in the No. 3 singles matchup with Barquero emerging on top by winning her second set 7-6.
“We just changed our lineup a little bit so players got an idea of consistency and getting the ball back,” said Coyotes head coach David Schwartz in response to Peries description of the Coyotes’ improvement. “We just need more consistent tennis and take it one step at a time. We just have to keep doing the same routine every day and hopefully continue to improve as team.”
