Glendale college women’s tennis dominates conference tournament
A dominant season for the Glendale Community College women’s tennis team extended into the second day of the Western State Conference Championships at Ventura College on Saturday afternoon.
The conference champion Vaqueros secured an all-Glendale doubles championship, while keeping alive the possibility for a similar situation in the singles bracket by advancing two players into the semifinals.
In all, the doubles teams of Srna Lepchevska and Hailey McNall, Miah Webb and Sabrina Subero and Ruth Kachatorian and Felicia Moradian along with McNall, Subero, Lepchevska, Webb and Kachatorian in singles play punched their tickets to the season-ending Ojai Tournament, which begins April 26.
“I’m not sure you could have asked for a better day,” Glendale coach Deo Sy said. “I had a feeling we’d have two, three players and teams do well, but today went above that.”
On the double side, the conference’s top two seeded squads will clash for the title Friday at 3 p.m. back in Ventura.
Glendale’s top-ranked duo of sophomores Lepchevska and McNall will battle the No. 2 pair of freshmen Webb and Sabrina Subero.
“We really have two solid doubles teams this year that would both be No. 1s on other teams,” Sy said. “All four girls for Glendale have done absolutely great work this year. This is a validation for them.”
Lepchevska and McNall earned their way to the final by opening Saturday’s action with an 8-5 victory over Santa Barbara’s Josephine Pulver and Pia Valtierra in the quarterfinals.
From there, the Vaqueros’ duo defeated the No. 4-seeded Bakersfield squad of Kayleen Sanchez and Serena Contreras, 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals.
As for Webb and Subero, the twosome defeated the fifth-ranked Ventura duo of Alyssa Powell and Allie De Marco, 8-3, in quarterfinals before dispatching of Santa Barbara’s No. 3-seeded Katelyn Peyvandi and Gabrielle Goss, 6-3, 6-0 in the semifinals.
The only defeat in doubles play came for Glendale’s eighth-ranked squad of sophomore Kachatorian and freshman Moradian, who fell to Peyvandi and Goss in the quarterfinals, 8-1.
On the singles side, Webb and Lepchevska punched their ticket to Friday’s conference semifinals at 11 a.m., also at Ventura College. Semifinal winners will advance to the same-day finals at 1 p.m.
Webb entered as the bracket’s top seed and lived up to the hype, blasting Ventura’s Jule Lauinger, 6-0, 6-0 in third-round action Saturday morning.
That triumph was followed by a 6-3, 6-0 win over Bakersfield’s Contreras in the quarterfinals.
Webb will square of against Santa Monica’s Abby Mullins in the semifinals.
As for Lepchevska, the fifth-ranked singles player defeated Santa Barbara’s Pulver, 6-2, 6-4 in the third round before topping teammate Subero, who was 12th-ranked, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
The Glendale sophomore will face take on Bakersfield’s No. 2-seeded Sanchez in the semifinals.
Before falling to a fellow Vaquero, Subero might have turned in the day’s biggest upset when she topped Santa Barbara’s No. 4-seeded Katelyn Peyvandi in third round, 1-6, 6-3, 10-4.
McNall opened with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Ventura’s Allie DeMarco in the third round.
In the quarterfinals, Mullins bested McNall, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.
There was some drama for Glendale early as Kachatorian opened singles play with a loss to Sanchez in the third round, 6-1, 6-1.
The setback dropped the Vaquero sophomore into the backdraw.
There, Kachatorian clinched a berth to Ojai with a win over Santa Barbara’s Goss, 3-6, 6-2, 10-6.
A busy week begins for Glendale in the regional playoffs, starting on Tuesday. Pairings will be released Sunday.
“It’s been a great weekend,” Sy said. “When I have my players playing each other, I stay neutral and don’t really coach much. I try to stay supportive and that’s what I’m going to do next weekend.”
