Local athletes shined in the Foothill League’s girls’ tennis finals at the Paseo Club in Valencia on Wednesday as Valencia’s doubles’ paring in Jiya Sanghavi and Makenzie Smith and Golden Valley’s singles’ player Kaelyn Azarraga took their respective championships to end the 2026 regular season.
Azarraga, who captured the singles’ championship over West Ranch’s Kaylie Chung, 6-1, 6-3, spoke afterward with The Signal and said the success is rewarding.
“This means a lot. I’ve been playing for a few years now and it just feels like all my hard work has paid off,” Azarraga said. “My opponent, Kaylie Chung, was my biggest opponent and it was such a great match.”
The singles championship marked the first time the Golden Valley junior secured the win after back-to-back runner-up finishes in the finals. Golden Valley tennis coach Josh Stimac said that Azarrga is the type of athlete to never let a loss shake her and he has seen the hard work she’s displayed over the years.
“She’s the type of athlete that’s always working to get better. The last two years, she was runner-up in this tournament, and she continued to work to improve little parts of her game,” Stimac said. “And it caps off a perfect season. She went 36-0 in league play and then won eight sets here. So, really impressive stuff, all year long.”
The third-place match for singles’ play, the Wildcats, who won the regular-season Foothill League title with an undefeated record, featured both West Ranch’s Madeline Park and Sophia Peterson.
In the end, Park secured the third-place medal with an 8-2 win over Peterson.
In doubles’ play, the Vikings were guaranteed to have a champion as the pairings of Preslee Middleton and Melina Alfred took on Jiya Sanghavi and Makenzie Smith. And after a back-and-forth match, Sanghavi and Smith secured the narrow win, 6-1, 6-7 (9-7), 13-11, and the doubles’ championship.
Valencia tennis coach Jeff Pollard spoke on the championship match and said the more experienced team won.
“Both pairs have been competitive all season. They were top two in seeding, and we were hopeful that they would play together in the final, which they did,” Pollard said. “The more mature team won today, the two freshmen were the losing opposition. But they’re our future. And we had two experienced doubles players, it was a very tough match, and I thought it was very high quality.”
Sanghavi spoke on her relationship with Smith and how the unlikely pairing has led to a friendship between the two that has led to success on the court.
“It’s definitely surprising because we are best friends out of this, and we never thought that we would make a great double team together,” Sanghavi said.
For Smith, she was glad to have played against her fellow teammates in Middelton and Alfred and is glad they all get to share the podium.
“I’m so proud of our teammates, and especially them being two freshmen,” Smith said. “I’m just so proud of them, and I’m so happy we’re all on the podium.”
In the third-place doubles’ match, Valencia’s Aubrey Nguyen and Julia Lee defeated Hart’s Amani Massoud and Amaya Malec, 6-2, 6-1.
With the end of the Foothill League regular season, the top teams in the standings – West Ranch, Valenca, Golden Valley and Hart — all earned auto bid into the Southern Section playoffs, with the Castaic Coyotes eligible for an at-large bid.
Each team awaits to see which division it’ll be placed in but won’t wait long as the Southern Section is set to release the pairings for the girls’ tennis playoffs on Saturday at 10 a.m. The pairings will feature where and when teams from the Santa Clarita Valley will play, with the first round scheduled for Wednesday.
