Glendale Community College’s Galstyan, Ono advance to Ojai final day
For the first time since 2012, the Glendale Community College women’s tennis program advanced a doubles team to the final day of the California Community College Athletic Assn. men’s and women’s state championship slated for Sunday.
The Vaqueros sophomore duo of Veronika Galstyan and Tsukimi Ono punched its ticket Saturday afternoon with a quarterfinals victory at the 117th edition of the season-ending Ojai Valley Tournament.
“It’s wonderful for them to advance to the semifinals and it’s a good opportunity for them to showcase their ability,” Glendale Coach Deo Sy said. “To end your season at Libbey Park and advance to the last day is special.”
The No. 2-seeded Galstyan and Ono, who were defeated in last year’s quarterfinals, topped Cerritos College’s No. 5-seeded Divianna Bravo and Petra Such, 6-3, 6-0, in Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinal round, which was the only match of the day for the Vaqueros twosome.
The victory qualified Western State Conference doubles champions Galstyan and Ono into Sunday’s 8 a.m. semifinal against top-seeded Ana Hinojosa and Joelle Huelse of Canada.
Should Galstyan and Ono win Sunday morning then they would advance to face Orange Coast College’s Clarrisa Colling and Karen Trinh or Western State Conference rivals and second-place finishers Mayra Jovic and Abby Mullins of Santa Monica College in the championship match at 2 p.m.
“Fatigue is not an issue,” Sy said. “Both of my players are fresh and they’re looking forward to a big Sunday.”
Galstyan and Ono are the first GCC women’s doubles players to qualify to the semifinals since 2012 when the duo of Samantha Sismundo and Sevana Zargarian advanced to the semifinals and were beaten by Santa Barbara’s Sophie Angner and Talia Hudson, 6-3, 6-4.
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