Glendale Community College women’s tennis doubles team extends season
Reaching the point of exhaustion while looking to extend their season, Viktoriya Shumakova and Alexandra Amor had just enough left to complete arguably their most dramatic victory of the season.
The No. 1 doubles tandem on the Glendale Community College women’s tennis kept returning shots at a feverish pace during a tiebreaker in the second round of the California Community College Athletic Assn. Regionals on Thursday. The suspense even got the best of Glendale first-year Coach Deo Sy at times.
Sy could exhale after Shumakova and Amor worked together to post a 3-6, 6-2, 10-7 victory against Karina Draz and Violeta Mallova of College of the Desert in Ventura County.
“You like to see close matches, but not that close because it can put you on the edge,” Sy said. “I told them to stay as high as they could. For me, there were a couple of points [during the tiebreaker] that I just couldn’t watch because it was that close.”
Shumakova and Amor, who had a first-round bye, will next meet Claudia Astudillo and Estafania Toscano of American River College in a round-of-32 match at noon Friday at Buena High in Ventura. The winner will then advance to a round-of-16 match at 3 p.m. On the line will be a trip to the state tournament, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in Ojai.
“The tiebreaker was so close,” Sy said. “It got to 6-6 and then we went up, 8-6, before closing it out.
“I like their chances [Friday]. We will have some time before their next match to go over some certain strategies.”
Elsewhere in doubles for the Vaqueros, Meghedi Mooradian and Ashley Sumudio posted a 6-1, 6-1 first-round win against Amanda Haag and Sydney Hunt of Mount San Jacinto. They then suffered a 6-2, 6-2 second-round defeat against Nadine Baquiran and Mia Hashimoto of Orange Coast. In a first-round match, Glendale’s Ayaka Takeuchi and Wendy Vasuthasawat fell, 6-1, 6-1, to Nadzyea Stokes and Vanessa Van Der Valk of Sacramento City College.
In singles action, the Vaqueros had three players advance to the second round. Unfortunately, none of them could move on to Friday.
Mooradian had a first-round bye before seeing Ariesha-Marie Samuda of Chabot post a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 second-round victory. Shumakova cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 opening-round win against Brianna Rodriguez of College of the Sequoias before falling, 7-6 (7-2), 6-0, to Cerritos’ Samantha Judan in the second round. Amor picked up a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 first-round victory against Dora Do of Chabot and then dropped a 6-3, 6-2 loss in the second round to Annly Heinze of Riverside.
“It was the first year for some of them and they started to feel the pressure,” Sy said. “Sometimes the nerves can take over and dictate the way you play.”
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Follow Charles Rich on Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich .
