SBCC’s Angner down to final four in regional

Sophie Angner reached the semifinals on Friday at the Southern Cal Regional women’s tennis tournament in Palm Desert.

Angner, the No. 5 seed from SBCC, downed Amber Nelson of Grossmont 6-2, 6-1 and then upset No. 4 Mardee Littrell of Palomar in the quarterfinals 6-1, 1-0, retired.

She’ll take on top-seeded Juliana Bacelar of Ventura on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. at Monterey Country Club. It marks the second straight week that Angner has made the semifinals in a major tournament. She reached the singles semifinals and doubles final at the 112th Ojai Invitational.

“Sophie played out of her mind,” said coach Debbie Ekola. “It was awesome to watch.”

Angner and Talia Hudson, a freshman from Santa Barbara High, were seeded No. 1 in doubles. They beat Jessica Zuniga-Vanessa Figueroa of Imperial Valley 7-5, 6-3 before falling to Jessica Worring-Sonia Landeros of Ventura in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 7-6.

All quarterfinalists qualified for the State Finals on May 10-12 at Balboa Tennis Club in San Diego. Angner will be playing singles and Angner-Hudson advanced in doubles.

The Regional semifinalists in singles and doubles are all from the Vaqueros’ conference, the Western State Conference.