Carpinteria clinched its first girls tennis league title in 34 years on Tuesday with a 16-2 rout over Villanova.
“I have said it before, but I cannot be more proud of this bunch of girls,” coach Charles Bryant said. They have proved to be tremendous fighters and believers in themselves and in their teammates. They earned this title with their hard work and much of it traces back to their pre-season preparation. They bought into a tougher and higher set of expectations. Hopefully, we will be able to continue this run well into the playoffs.
The Warriors received a big lift with the return of Erin Saito.
She won two matches with Lesly Zapata and another with Jessica Macias.
“It was great to have Erin back after missing yesterday’s match,” said Bryant. “You could easily see the confidence of the team skyrocket with just her presence.”
The No. 2 doubles team Shanya Norman-Cat Maldonado won two matches on the day. The No. 3 doubles Katherine Delk and Natalie Saito won all three of their matches.
“All three doubles teams played great but I was especially pleased with the No. 2 and No.3 teams. They were moving welland their volleys were crisp,” said Bryant.
In singles, No 3 Kassandra Ni won all three of her matches and avenged an earlier season loss to Villanova’s No. 1 player. No 2 Sidney Gross won her only set but it took an hour and a half.
Tess Pitzer went 1-1 and No. 1 singles Kelsie Bryant went 3-0 and did not drop a game.
The Warriors have one more league match against Bishop Diego on Thursday at 3:30 at the Municipal Courts.
