Women’s tennis progress to State Championships for the first time ever
El Camino College Warriors Women’s Tennis player Kayla Brown (left) is embraced by teammates Stefanie Liebich (middle) and Madeline Evans (right) following her game clinching win against College of the Desert Roadrunners’ Antonella Mazzotti at El Camino College on Tuesday, April 19. Brown’s win over Mazzotti would give the Warriors their first State Championship attendance in the program’s history. (Naoki Gima | The Union )
The El Camino College women’s tennis team is headed to state championships for the first time in the program’s history at El Camino.
Remaining resilient throughout the 3 hour game, the Warriors won against College of the Desert in its singles and doubles matches, scoring 5-2 as their final score.
Julia Jones, a 19-year-old student at El Camino College has been playing tennis since she was 4-years-old.
Jones led the No.1 doubles match with Kekoa Vaefa, bringing the Warriors closer to winning the final with an 8-4 win against Desert.
“This game was very important to me and my teammates which was nerve wracking but also exciting,” Jones said. “We’re going to state finals and we’re going to try our best to win, that’s our main goal.”
The game featured four singles matches and the Warriors needed to win one singles match to qualify for state championships, which they achieved.
“I was here during the 2020 season when COVID came, so it feels like a redemption story, you know the comeback. This game means a lot to all of us,” Kayla Brown, a 21-year-old El Camino student said.
Leading No. 2 in doubles and No. 4 in singles against Desert, Brown won 6-2 and 6-4 in singles.
Brown said she is looking forward to winning state finals and individual matches in the future.
Vaefa, a 19-year-old criminal justice major said this win was definitely the most rewarding game of the season, based on knowing how far the team has gone.
“Currently my goals are to bring home victory and playing further,” Vaefa said.
Assistant Coach Darin Dunn, for both mens and womens tennis, supported the team throughout the game.
“We’re very excited for state finals against [Northern California], since this is the first time we’ve won state finals,” Dunn said.
Dunn, who enjoys watching both women’s and men’s tennis matches, said the common similarity between them both is they both end up making it to playoffs.
“This is their third time playing Desert and this game showed how strong both teams are. We won at positions we needed to win at,” Dunn said.
The Warriors celebrated their victory with a chant and look forward to playing against Northern California community college Cañada College on Saturday, April 23 at the Bakersfield Racquet Club.
Editor’s Note: Updated photo orientation and captions on April 21, 2022, at 12:46 a.m.
