The Carpinteria girls tennis team poses with the trophy after beating JW North for the CIF Division 5 championship.
There?s something to be said about the power of the written word.
The Carpinteria girls tennis team was so intent on winning a CIF championship that they put the goal down in writing.
The Warriors, who lost in the title match last year, achieved their goal by beating Riverside?s JW North 10-8 in the CIF Division 5 final at the Claremont Club.
?It feels really great because we’ve been working hard all season and we really fought for each other,? Carpinteria?s No. 1 player Kelsie Bryant said. ?We play for each other and I think that’s why we were able to win.?
Coach Charles Bryant (Kelsie?s dad) said last year?s loss in the final motivated the girls to work harder.
?Many of the girls wrote down the goal of winning CIF at the start of the season,? he said. ?After our magical run last year and losing in the finals, the girls put in a lot of work during the summer and many enjoyed staying after practice and putting in more time, knowing it would pay off in the end.? I pushed and they responded well and always rose to challenges.?
It was a tough battle. The Warriors took a hit early when Bryant suffered her first defeat of the season against North?s Jasmine Almaguer in the first round. The loss ended a streak of 65 consecutive set wins.
?We knew coming in that this was going to be very close and it was going to come down to a few key sets in the first two rounds,? said coach Bryant. ?We had to go 4-2 in both the first two rounds to have a chance to win. I think it is a Billie Jean King quote when she said, “Pressure makes us,” was never more applicable than those hard-fought sets.
No. 2 singles player Kassandra Ni handled the pressure and scored a come-from-behind 6-4 win in the first round.
?She remained calm throughout, played her style of game and kept their player off balance in those last three games,? said Bryant.
Tess Pitzer played her best set of the year and won 6-1 to give the Warriors a 2-1 edge in singles in the first round.
The doubles team of Lesly Zapata and Erin Saito begin celebrating after scoring the title-clinching set victory.
In doubles, the No. 1 team of Erin Saito-Lesly Zapata scored a 6-3 win and the No. 3 combo of Natalie Saito-Gabi Montes De Oca played strong and defeated their opponents 6-2, giving Carpinteria a 4-2 advantage.
The No. 2 doubles team of Merissa Souza-Cat Maldonado came up huge in the second round and pulled out a 7-5 victory over North?s Laura Baumgarten and Sari Gyi. That gave Carpinteria a commanding 8-4 lead going into the final round of sets.
?This was a back-and-forth battle that was moving fairly fast until the latter part of the set when both teams would not give up ground,? Bryant said. ?The last three games probably took close to a half an hour as both teams knew what was at stake. Merissa was solid at the baseline, keeping their team deep, and Cat was a force at the net and had the set-clinching overhead for the 7-5 victory that gave us the 8-4 lead after the second round.?
Bryant rebounded from her loss and swept her next two opponents, 6-0, 6-0.
Saito-Zapata, who went 3-0 on the day, scored the clinching set with a 6-0 victory.
?Lesly was as steady as I have seen her and Erin was her usual outstanding self,? said Bryant.
The coach lauded the leadership of Saito.
?Last year, we had two captains guiding us; each taking on different responsibilities,? he said. ?This year we would have not had the success if it was not for our captain Erin Saito. She did it all and was instrumental in this year?s title, both as a player and a leader.
?I couldn’t be more proud of this team,? Bryant added, ?and my one regret is that I did not let them celebrate ‘loudly’ and appropriately after winning the title as other matches were still being played.?
After the long trip back to Carpinteria, the team was greeted at the school at 11 p.m. by the principal, vice principal, teachers and quite a few students.
?I think it brought out a few tears,? Bryant said. ?To bring a championship plaque back to Carpinteria and to have the support of so many students, administrators, alumni, last year?s players who set the groundwork, even Santa Barbara High coaches and players means so much to the girls and the community.
?This couldn’t have been accomplished without all of their support.?
