Doubles play leads way for Glendale Community College women’s tennis
With berths to the conference semifinals and season-ending Ojai Tournament up for grabs, perhaps there was no bigger competition this season for the Glendale Community College women’s tennis team than Saturday’s Western State Conference tournament in Ventura.
The Vaqueros’ success Saturday was led by the stout performance of Glendale’s doubles squads.
“We definitely had some good play going on,” Vaqueros first-year Coach Deo Sy said. “I was really happy with the doubles teams and my singles players will get ready for Ojai, so it was mostly positive.”
Saturday’s conference tournament action ended in the quarterfinals with three Glendale doubles teams and two singles players participating in the round.
Arguably the most impressive effort came from the Vaqueros’ No. 2 doubles team of Hoover High graduate Meghedi Mooradian and Ashley Sumudio.
The duo entered the tournament seeded sixth and took down Santa Barbara’s No. 1 doubles team of Teresa Downey and Monica Kunz, 7-5, 2-6, 10-4.
“I was really proud of those girls, especially Ashley,” Sy said. “Ashley kept the team together. When they were playing and Meghedi would get down on herself after a mistake, Ashley would just tell her to relax and move onto the next point.”
With the victory, Mooradian and Sumudio, who had already qualified to the Ojai Tournament on April 24, earned a berth into next Friday’s conference semifinals back at Ventura College.
The Glendale pair will have another giant task in taking on top-seeded Jessica Goldbeck and Tsuda Kaori of Santa Monica College.
Goldbeck and Kaori reached the semifinals by eliminating the Glendale No. 3 doubles team of freshmen Amy Shinenaga and Ayaka Takeuchi, 6-2, 6-0.
The good news for Shinenaga and Takeuchi is that the pair already clinched a berth to Ojai.
Glendale’s other squad that punched its ticket to the semifinals was the No. 1 doubles team of Crescenta Valley High alumna Viktoriya Shumakova and Alexandra Amor, seeded second, which defeated the Santa Monica pair of Izabel Nazdracheva and Thanapha Bencharongkul, 6-2, 6-0.
Shumakova and Amor will face Santa Monica’s Victoria Mamatova and Mary Katherine Ashmore in the semifinals.
As for singles action, Saturday marked the end of the road for Glendale in the conference tournament.
The Vaqueros’ two singles players in the main draw quarterfinals were eliminated as Amor fell to Downey, 6-4, 6-1 and Shumakova was defeated by Ashmore, 6-3, 6-1.
Fortunately for Amor and Shumakova, the duo qualified to Ojai Tournament, as did Shigenaga, who fought her way out of backdraw action.
Shigenaga first beat Sumudio, 6-3, 6-2 and then moved onto defeat Mooradian, 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 to earn advancement.
Mooradian earlier topped Santa Barbara’s Gabriela McDaniel, 6-0, 6-0.
Takeuchi also participated in the backdraw, but was beaten by Ventura’s Jessica Moore, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
While the Vaqueros continue individual play over the next two weeks, Dy is hoping the Vaqueros will earn one of four at-large berths to the team playoffs, which begin Tuesday.