The Cerritos College women’s tennis team has been defeated!
After soundly beating its first seven opponents, the Falcons ran into a very strong El Camino team that was also undefeated.
They handed Cerritos its first loss of the season, 5-4.
In a close match that saw players from both teams battle, even when it appeared it was impossible to pull out a win, El Camino showed it was the tougher of the two teams by taking the match from Cerritos.
Before even setting foot on the courts, the coaching staff knew El Camino would be a big- time challenge.
Assistant coach Tim Parchman had even said that El Camino might have one of their strongest teams in recent memory.
As the six singles matches got under way, it became apparent that Cerritos would not beat up on this team.
The Falcons were being seriously challenged.
As the matches progressed, in what is usually a given for Cerritos, Parchman said, “We are going to need to win four out of the six singles matches. If we do that, I don’t think anybody could beat us in three doubles matches.”
With three doubles matches played in a contest, a 4-2 lead would definitely give Cerritos the advantage, as they would only need to win one out of the three doubles matches to win the overall match.
However, according to El Camino’s No.1 player, Roxanne Mashhadi, her team also feels that if a match came down to doubles, her team would take it.
After five singles matches had been completed, Cerritos held a 3-2 advantage.
However, a real battle was taking place in the final singles match of the day.
On the No. 5 court Cerritos’ Lara Yturriaga had won her first set against El Camino’s Seiko Yokomizo.
However, in a very tough second set that Yturriaga had the early command of, Yokomizo fought her way back to win it 7-5.
In the longest match of the day (2 hours, 15 minutes), Yturriaga was forced to play a third set.
In another tough set, El Camino’s “psycho,” – as her teammates called her – jumped out to an early 4-1 lead.
But in this battle between warriors, Yturriaga battled back to even the set at 4-4. However Yokomizo relentlessly fought Yturriagga, and eventually won 6-4.
Yturriaga would later say, “It was a tough match. [Yokomizo] was getting all the balls. No matter where I put it, she was there (to return it). She just didn’t give up.”
The overall score was now tied at 3-3, neither team had an advantage, and they both felt that in doubles play, their team could not be beaten.
This was going to be a thriller!
In the No.1 doubles match, Cerritos’ Dora Prado and Mayra Mariscal were defeated 8-6 by El Camino’s Mashhadi and Karin Entner.
With Cerritos now down 4-3, the No. 3 doubles match was going to be completed next, and Cerritos was looking to the pair of Manzo and Jessica Colocho to even the overall score back up at 4-4.
Conversely, El Camino was looking to their pair of Kim Ahasa and Jade Tran to win the game for them.
In the match, Cerritos’ Manzo and Colocho jumped out to a commanding 6-1 lead, and it was looking like they would tie the overall match a 4-4.
That would force the match to be decided by the final doubles match, and Cerritos had their always-reliable team of Arrogante and Yturriaga playing in that one.
But El Camino had other plans.
Ahasa and Tran dug down deep, and found the will to come back on Manzo and Colocho.
They tied the score at 7-7, and then continued their relentless comeback, winning the match 9-8.
Arrogante and Yturriaga went on to win their doubles match, but it did not matter, El Camino had won the match, and excited players from its team began cheering and applauding.
They knew they had been in a tough match, and were excited about being the team that was still undefeated.
Karin Emtner, El Camino’s No. 3 player, said, “This is the toughest match we’ve played as a team.”
Parchman said, “We couldn’t handle the pressure. It’s easy to play when you’re ahead, but when you have to put it on the line you have to step up.
“That’s what shows whether or not you’re good enough to be a champion, whether or not you can win. And they weren’t prepared when it came time to put it on the line. The other team was more willing to put it on the line.”
Coach Terri Button agreed that it was the first time her team had faced any real pressure, but said that a team has to experience pressure to be able to handle it.
Having now faced some adversity, Button said, “There’s some other teams that are good too. We have to go the second round and beat the same teams.
Update
The Falcons faced Grossmont College in the Southwestern Tournament over the weekend.
Mariscal won the No. 3 singles title in straight sets, 6-2 and 7-5, while Pradolost her no. 1 singles match, 6-3, 6-4.
Yturriaga and Colocho lost their No. 3 doubles match, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
