SBCC needed three doubles wins to pull out a victory in Tuesday’s WSC first-place women’s tennis showdown with Santa Monica but only got one and dropped a 6-3 decision at Pershing Park.
Terea Tapu and Lindsay Penner earned singles points on a day when Anna Slyutova, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High, suffered her first loss in 12 singles matches. Slyutova and Tapu improved to 8-0 with an 8-5 doubles victory for the Vaqueros (10-2, 8-2 WSC), who finished second in conference behind the Corsairs (10-0).
Slyutova went 23-1 in the regular season, including 12-0 in doubles. Four of her doubles wins came with Meike van Hoogenhuijze.
“We were up halfway through all the doubles sets and I thought we might do it but then they broke away,” said coach Debbie Ekola. “Santa Monica is a good solid team, they deserved to win.”
The Vaqueros qualified for the Southern Cal Team Regional by finishing second in the WSC. They’ll play an opponent to be determined in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
Santa Monica 6, SBCC 3. Singles–Anastasia Eliseeva, SM, def. Amy Sagraves 6-2, 6-0; Julietta Collet, SM, def. Meghan Schaeffer 6-3, 6-1; Tatiana Lauritzen, SM, def. Kendra Ross 6-2, 6-2; Terea Tapu, SB, def. Alix Thomas 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2; Gwendolyn Kauffman, SM, def. Anna Slyutova 6-3, 6-0; Lindsay Penner, SB, def. Kimberly Penez 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Doubles–Eliseeva-Lauritzen, SM, def. Sagraves-Schaeffer 8-4; Collet-Penez, SM, def. Penner-Ross 8-5; Tapu-Slyutova, SB, def. Thomas-Kauffman 8-5. Records–SM 10-0 WSC. SBCC 10-2, 8-2 WSC.
