Carpinteria is back in the CIF girls tennis finals.
The Warriors defeated Arlington 12-6 in the Division 5 semifinals on Wednesday in Riverside to reach the championship for the second straight year. They’ll play Riverside-JW North for the title on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Claremont Club.
Carpinteria lost to Hacienda Heights Wilson in last year’s Division 5 final.
Carpinteria’s doubles teams jumped on Arlington early to take control of the match.
“Similar to the last match, our No. 2 doubles and No. 3 doubles came up huge for us today,” said coach Charles Bryant. “Cat Maldonado-Merissa Souza came from behind in the first round and set the tone for the match with a critical win. They played amazingly and carried their momentum over in the next two sets, winning both.
“At No. 3 doubles, Gabi Montes De Oca-Natalie Saito lost against their No, 3 but then came back and won tight sets against the Lions top two doubles teams to finish 2-1 on the day,” he continued. “No. 1 doubles Erin Saito-Lesly Zapata swept all three of their sets and played their usual steady selves.”
Arlington’s coach Eric Biddle agreed that the doubles made the difference.
“In the first round, we had a couple of glitches that took our doubles out of it,” Biddle told the Riverside Press Enterprise. “Carpinteria played good; they’re a good team.”
In singles, Kassandra Ni fought back from an 0-3 first set and won 7-5 to give the Warriors a big boost.
“She has really been playing great lately and similar to the doubles teams, she came through when we needed her the most,” said Bryant.
Carpinteria’s No.1 player Kelsie Bryant, who had not dropped a game in 38 straight sets, had her streak broken in the first round but still won, 6-2, to run her record to 65-0.
Bryant said the semifinal performance was the most complete match of the season for the Warriors. He then cautioned they’ll need to be sharper against JW North.
“As great as we played today, we will have to be even stronger on Friday. JW North has one of the best singles players in Southern California and the two top doubles teams from their league,” he said.
Carpinteria is now 23-1.
