West Ranch, Saugus and Golden Valley also win first-round CIF playoff matches
Following a second-place finish in the Foothill League standings, Valencia girls’ tennis opened the first round of the Division 5 California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section playoffs with a win at home over Oxford Academy.
The Vikings defeated the Patriots 11-7, with the doubles teams of Valencia being key to the win at Valencia High School on Wednesday.
“We got eight out of the nine doubles, so that was definitely our strength,” Valencia coach Darrell Peries said. “We got to figure out what to do with our singles for us. But our doubles have always been our strength the whole year.”
Samara Wijesundera and Isabella Bronstein were the top doubles team that won all three of their matches with scores of 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.
Another pair that impressed Peries and contributed heavily to the win was Julia Lee and Amelia Behmlander, who tallied three wins, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.
All year long Peries stated that the doubles side is the team’s strongest unit and couldn’t be prouder of the performances.
“Samara, Izzy [Isabella] and then Julia, Amelia had the strongest performances today,” he said. “And Jenevieve Austria and Jiya Sanghavi got two out of three.”
After the game, Peries credited the camaraderie of the team as their key to success all season, as during the last game of the day, Makenzie Smith was in a tight battle in her match, and her teammates cheered her on.
“They’re all so close and have good energy about them,” he said. “So, that helps with the tennis team because they need each other and keep themselves together in that way, so the camaraderie is strong this year.”
With the win, the Vikings advanced to the second round of the Division 5 championship and match up against the Thacher Toads, the first seed in the bracket.
Until the next match, Peries is going to have his team ready and keep the energy up as they ride into the next round.
“From now until then, there’s not much change that’s going to happen,” he said. “All we can really do is tell them to keep fighting, have good energy, mentally prepare and then go execute when the time comes.”
West Ranch, Saugus, Golden Valley also advance
As for the other schools that participated in the first round, West Ranch defeated California Academy of Math & Science 10-8 in the Division 3 playoffs.
The Golden Valley Grizzlies won on the road over Chaparral 15-3 in the Division 5 bracket, and the Saugus Centurions defeated La Mirada 14-4 in Division 6.
All second-round matchups are on Friday with the matches set to begin at 2 p.m. with locations yet to be determined.
Photos below from the Centurions win over La Mirada at Saugus High School:
