The Corcoran High girls’ tennis team picked up a pair of road wins this past week and improved to 5-0 in league play (8-0, overall).
On Tuesday of last week, Corcoran traveled to Porterville and came away with a 9-0 sweep of the Grizzlies from Granite Hills. It was the Panther’s seventh consecutive 9-0 victory.
In singles play, number one Ashley Pappilli played her toughest opponent to date and defeated Shantal Edmond, 8-1. Number two singles, Debbie Martinez blanked Stephanie Ramos, 8-0. In the closest match of the evening, Genshel Naguiat bested Celeste Puente, 8-5. In number four singles, Samantha Robles was too much for Kelly Whited, 8-1. In number five singles, Monica Deloera defeated Mary Navarro, 8-2. Finally in number six singles, Maggie Arrellano aced Sara Lor, 8-0. Daniela Bravo topped Victoria Perez, 8-0 in the final varsity singles match of the evening.
In doubles action, number one tandem, Pappilli and Martinez stopped Edmond and Puente, 8-5. Number two doubles, Robles and Deloera ran away from Ramos and Whited, 8-1. Finally in number three doubles, Mabel Zamora and Maria Contreras blanked Diana Torres and Zatziri Gonzales, 8-0.
On Thursday of last week, the Panthers traveled to Hanford to tangle with the Sierra Pacific Golden Bears and squeaked out a 5-4 victory. CHS bolted to a quick 4-0 lead with convincing victories at number four singles (Robles), number five singles (Deloera), number six singles (Arrellano) and number three doubles, (Contreras and Zamora).
The Golden Bears clawed back into the match with four consecutive victories of their own to tie the match at 4-4. Kelsey Gong slipped past Ashley Pappilli, 5-8. Monica Gong came back to defeat Debbie Martinez, 5-8, and Keili Leasure blitzed Genshel Naguiat, 1-8.
In number one doubles, M. Gong and Leasure pulled away from Robles and Martinez for a 4-8 victory. With the score evened at 4-4, it all came down to number two doubles. Pappilli and Deloera jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but were caught by an undermanned Golden Bear tandem (K. Gong and Perez) at 4-4. CHS regained the lead and were one game away from earning the win, but were evened at 7-7, forcing a tiebreaker that comes down to which team can score seven points first. The tiebreaker seesawed back and forth at 3-3, before Deloera and Pappilli were able to win four consecutive points for the 7-3 tiebreaker victory.
The Panthers remain tied for the league lead at 5-0 and hosted the other undefeated league team, Woodlake on Tuesday. However, details were not available at press time.
