(Ojai, CA) The amateur tennis world descended upon the small town of Ojai this past week (April 25-28), and out of it, Mt. SAC nearly had a double winner in the 3C2A Women's Tennis State Championships at Libbey Park. The No. 3 South Seed doubles team of Julianna Vich and Paige Valenzuela came away with the first doubles championship in Mt. SAC program history, while Vich came oh, so close, to the Mounties second individual titlist ever, as she lost in the final. Previously, Jessica Knitter was the first individual state champ for Mt. SAC in 2002. Mt. SAC sent three doubles teams and six singles to the state championships.
The freshmen duo of Vich and Valenzuela, who were part of 30 doubles teams in the championships, defeated the team of Emily Thieme/Janine Kremling, 6-0, 6-3 of Riverside City College. "They peaked at the perfect time and handled their opponents easily until the semifinal match against Glendale," Mt. SAC Women's Tennis coach Lee Shiomoto said. "In the finals against Riverside, they had no answers to the Mt. SAC power, giving the Mounties their first doubles state championship."
Vich and Valenzuela had a bye in the first round, then started their march to the title with a 6-0, 6-0 win in the round of 64. That was followed by three straight two-set sweeps through the quarterfinals, where they had to go to a tiebreaker set in the semifinals 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 to defeat Mane Sargsyan and Haruno Ono of Glendale College. "Strong play gave the Mounties the first set and Glendale countered with a strategic move of playing back giving them the second set," said Shiomoto of the semifinal match. Vich/Valenzuela found themselves down, 7-3 in the third set. "(They) played some incredible tennis to win, 10-8," he added.
The second Mt. SAC doubles team of sophomore Anh Nguyen and freshman Sage Youschak lost its first-round match in the 3rd set, but the third Mt. SAC duo of Emma Cervantes/Azalia Rodriguez opened with a win in 3 sets in the first round, but fell in the round of 64, 6-1, 6-1.
Vich, who was the No. 1 South Seed, started her path to the singles final with a dominant performance in the first two rounds, dropping only one set. After a first-round bye, she won in the round of 64, 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-0 in the round of 32. "Julianna ran through the draw all the way to the final match, where she played American River's No. 1 Seed from the North," Shiomoto said. In the round of 16 against Callie Tzab of Santa Barbara City College, Vich also won in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. In the quarters and semi's, she only dropped two out of 26 games. "In the first set, it was a tight battle with just one break," added Shiomoto.
In the second set, American Rivers' Nareen Cheam broke early, but Vich broke back to tie the set, 5-5. Cheam broke serve again and held on for the match." Vich, who is known for her aggressive baseline play and her ability to use her return-of-serve as a weapon, fought for two sets but lost, 6-4, 7-5, to American Rivers Nareen Cheam in the championship.
Other results for the five remaining Mt. SAC singles players: Rodriguez lost in the first round, 1-6, 1-6; Cervantes had a bye in the first round and lost in the round of 64, 0-6, 0-6. Valenzuela also had a bye in the first round, won in three sets in a come-from-behind match in the round of 64, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, but lost in the round of 32, 2-6, 2-6. Nguyen had a bye in the first round and lost, 0-6, 0-6 in the round of 32, while Youchak fell 1-6, 2-6 in the first round.
3C2A Women's Tennis State Championships Recap - https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/wten/2023-24/releases/Ojai_Day_2