Gauchos bolt past Chargers to keep pace

The Saddleback women's tennis team is heating up at the right time and won its fourth match in the past five tries with an 8-1 decision over Cypress College on Thursday afternoon on the Saddleback Courts.  The Gauchos are now just 1.5 games back in the OEC standings.

Saddleback is trying to keep pace with first place Orange Coast College in the Orange Empire Conference standings and needed a win against Cypress in order to move within 1.5 games of the Pirates.  After an early bump in the road at No. 1 singles, the Gauchos ripped off eight straight wins to set up a big match next week against OCC.

Dominique Willette, Joanna Colin, Deena Fatehi, Maddison Serklew and Ariana Khalaj-Hedayati were all winners at singles, with Fatehi and Khalaj-Hedayati both winning rigorous three-set matches.  It was a good win for a Gaucho team that barely slipped past the Chargers in the opening round of conference play earlier in the month, 5-4.

Saddleback is now one game behind second place Irvine Valley heading into the match with OCC next Thursday.  The match is set to start at 2:00 PM in Costa Mesa.

Singles;

1.       Diana Dao (CC) def.  Ashley Glick (SC) 6-4, 6-3
2.       Dominique Willette (SC) def. Kalie Laubie (CC) 6-2, 7-6
3.       Joanna Colin (SC) def. Brittni Jenkins (CC) 6-3, 6-3
4.       Deena Fatehi (SC) def. Shamine Singh (CC) 6-4, 6-7, 6-4
5.       Maddison Serklew (SC) def. Vi Nguyen (CC) 6-2, 6-0
6.       Ariana Khalaj-Hedayati (SC) def. Mallika Tith (CC) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

Doubles;

1.       Glick & Willette (SC) def. Dao & Laubie (CC) 8-5
2.       Colin & Serklew (SC) def. Jenkins & Singh (CC) 9-8
3.       Khalaj-Hedayati & Maria Battel (SC) def. Nguyen & Tith (CC) 8-1