INDIAN WELLS – Westmont lived up to its number one seeding in the Golden State Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament with a 5-0 victory over Hope International in a semifinal match-up at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The match lasted less than two hours, leaving the Warriors in good shape for tomorrow’s championship showdown with third-seeded Vanguard.
“I think (Hope International) got beat up a little bit yesterday in their 5-4 win (over Arizona Christian),” said Westmont head coach Kathy LeSage. “Hope has some individual players that can produce some tough matches, but today that didn’t happen.”
The Warriors swept the doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead. The number one Westmont team of Tara Yekrang and Jessica Cedillo posted an 8-2 win over Caroline Houston and Sabrina Miller. Less than a minute later, Fernanda Rivera and Alyson Meyer claimed an 8-3 win on court number three over Becca Roeser and Alyssa Pritchett.
Nicci Yvanovich and Grace Davis completed the sweep by winning 8-4 on the number two court over Jasmin Zaragoza and Jeannette Rodriguez.
The Warriors picked up another point when Hope International’s Caroline Miller, who was scheduled to play at number one, had to withdraw due to injury. The rest of the Royal’s lineup moved up one place. That made the score 4-0, meaning that the Warriors needed just one win to claim the match.
That win came on court number four where Carolyn Stevens defeated Roeser 6-1, 6-0. As a result, the singles matches on the other four courts remained unfinished.
At number one, Cedillo defeated Zaragoza 6-0 in the first set and was leading in the second set 4-2. Davis was also ahead by a set, having won the first set 6-2 over Rodriguez. Davis was ahead in the second set 1-0.
On court number three, Keach took the first set 6-1 over Miller and led 3-1 in the second set. At number five, Haley Strandness did not surrender a game, winning the first set 6-0 and leading the second set 4-0.
The experience of playing at Indian Wells Tennis Garden was one that LeSage especially appreciates.
“This is wonderful,” said LeSage. “It is special for our team because we have come here every year for spring break for the last six or seven years. We have watched the pros play and then played matches at different clubs in town. This time, we got to play on these courts.
“The court surface is much slower than the normal hard court surface,” reported LeSage. “It is a disadvantage to the power hitter because it slows the ball down. It favors players who put a lot of spin on the ball. The surface has a lot of grit which grabs the ball and causes it to spin even more. The finesse players love it.”
The Warriors will take to those courts one more time for the championship match at 10:00 a.m. Vanguard reached the final game by defeating Biola 5-0 in the first round and second-seeded Concordia 5-3 in the semifinals.
