The San Marcos girls wrapped up an undefeated regular season with a 15-3 win over Dos Pueblos Thursday, solidifying their Channel League championship heading into next week’s individual league tournament.
The Royals swept the doubles play, winning all nine sets from the No. 1 team of Sydney Posch and Kate Selby, No. 2 Jolie Mardiat and Charlotte Manion, and No. 3 Kaitlyn Thompson and Cristina Wickline.
“The girls are playing aggressive, smart, and being consistent all around to sweep their doubles sets today,” San Marcos coach Jonny Sapp said.
Mina Yazadzhiev and Natasha Gill also swept in singles.
“They both had a tough match against DP’s No. 2 Mel Mayo,” Sapp said. “Natasha had a slow start, but made a comeback from being down 0-3 and ended up winning 6-3. Natasha started playing more aggressively and targeted Mel’s backhand a little more to keep her from attacking with her forehand.
“Mina was also down 4-5 against Mel, but made a comeback and won 7-5. Mina was making too many unforced errors early on, but turned it around by playing smarter and hitting heavier balls with spin to keep the ball in play longer opposed to flattening it out too much which caused her to make a lot more errors. By doing that it put more pressure on Mel to help Mina come up with the win.”
Mel competed especially well and gave herself a great chance to win all three of her matches,” Dos Pueblos coach Rob Schiff said. “For a freshman, she shows excellent resilience and a ton of mental toughness. She sets such a positive example for our team in approaching each match with purpose and grit.”
San Marcos finishes 18-0 overall, including a sweep through league play. The Channel League Individual Tournament will be hosted next week at the Santa Barbara High School courts.
“Then, the week after that we will be gearing up to make a push in the Division 1 playoffs,” Sapp said.
Dos Pueblos finishes 10-4 in league play and 11-4 overall.
“San Marcos is an excellent team, with a ton of depth,” Schiff said. “Congratulations to them for an undefeated league title.”