Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Grecia De La Cruz and teammate Hannah Purvis celebrate their win over a pair from Saddleback.
Hannah Purvis plays in a singles match against an opponent at Saddleback.
Greta Krueger battles her Saddleback opponent in a singles game.
Kiana Lua plans in a singles match against an opponent at Saddleback.
Kiana Lua plays in a singles match against an opponent at Saddleback.
Greta Krueger and her doubles partner, Kiana Lua, share a moment after scoring against their Saddleback opponents.
The Bakersfield College women's tennis team added another honor to its already decorated season.
After winning the Western State Conference title on March 27, the Renegades had earned a No. 3 seed in the Southern California playoffs. They lived up to their billing Tuesday afternoon by knocking off visiting Saddleback College 7-2.
BC experienced success early higher up its ladder, with its No. 1 and 2 doubles pairs and No. 1, 3 and 4 singles players jumping out to quick leads over their Bobcat counterparts on the way to five of the Renegades' victories.
"Whenever you have a team come in, we're at home, they might start off a little cold, the opposite team," BC coach Marc Gomez said. "But I know, if we're up, I tell the girls, 'Put the foot to the gas, keep it going, because they're eventually going to warm up.'"
Saddleback demonstrated some resilience, particularly at No. 6 singles, where Sara Vargas claimed an easy 6-1 first set and led 3-0 in the second before being forced to pull out a 7-5 result. That match seemed poised to clinch the victory for BC, as the Renegades were stuck on four wins for a long time, but it took so long to finish that Grecia De La Cruz and Abby Reimer provided wins at No. 3 and No. 5 singles instead.
BC women's tennis had endured repeated first-round postseason losses, including when it previously won the WSC in 2017. Incomplete historical data makes it difficult to chart the Renegades' last playoff win, but based on the last seven seasons as documented by BC, the preceding eight according to the California Community College Athletic Association and The Californian's own archives, it appears to have come in 2008.
"It's great for the program," Gomez said. "A few more extra weeks of practice, and more match play for us. It's great for the program, great for the school, great for the community."
De La Cruz and Hannah Purvis set the tone with an 8-0 win in No. 2 doubles over Garuna and Brooke Buser, and Greta Krueger and Kiana Lua pulled away at No. 1 with well-timed points to beat Ainsley Beresford and Sydney Grove 8-5. Saddleback's Kavelle Tomaiko and Emily West prevented the doubles sweep by disrupting Reimer and Cisneros' steady one-game lead, claiming the final three games after a long string of missed shots to win 8-6.
Krueger had a much more straightforward time with Grove in No. 1 singles, taking her down 6-0, 6-2, and Purvis claimed five straight games in the second set at No. 4 to beat Buser 6-2, 6-2. As Vargas labored at No. 6, Reimer stayed consistent to knock off West 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5, and De La Cruz beat Ellie Maruna 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4.
The teams played out the final two matches, and Vargas closed out Tomaiko before Lua fell in a dramatic 11-9 tiebreaker to Beresford in the lone three-set match of the afternoon.
The result headlined a celebratory afternoon at BC, as the baseball and softball teams both won conference home games on walk-offs.
Gomez's squad will now await the winner of No. 2 Desert and No. 5 Glendale in the second round of the playoffs next Tuesday.
"Tomorrow we'll do like a light hit — that's Wednesday," Gomez said. "And Thursday, Friday, we'll work on some things that I saw in the match today. A few doubles things that we need to check out, singles we'll do a little couple technical things on the girls, but you just want to keep it going."
This story has been edited to correct the result of the No. 5 singles match.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
