Palo Verde, Clark win first-round state matches
Palo Verde’s girl’s tennis team had a four-year run of state tennis tournament appearances snapped last year, when the Panthers lost to Faith Lutheran in the region semifinals.
The sting didn’t completely subside until Monday afternoon, when the Panthers knocked off Bishop Gorman 12-6 in a Class 4A state quarterfinal, earning a trip to Reno for a semifinal on Thursday.
“From the beginning of the season we really just wanted to build a good team ethic, and this year we came into it hoping that team bonding and talking to each other and having meetings would get us to where we wanted to be,” said Kaya Richardson, who went 3-0 with doubles partner Roxanne Okano on Monday. “It was a difficult journey but working together and talking to each other and just keeping our heads high, we were able to get to where we wanted to be.”
Richardson and Okano clinched the match for the Panthers with a 6-0 victory in the third round over Gorman’s Katy Ng and Marci Adolfo.
Palo Verde’s doubles teams of Devon Yamane and Andrea Flores-Gerez, and Caroline Hsu and Priya Raju, each went 2-1. Shelby Graber and Lindsay Juhasz both went 2-1 in singles for the Panthers.
Clark gets by Bonanza
Clark’s boys tennis team mostly rolled through the regular season, winning 13 of 16 matches by six points or more.
But the Chargers were tested by Bonanza on Monday afternoon.
And they passed.
Clark (16-1) eked out an 11-7 win over the Bengals in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament to earn a berth in the semifinals, which begin Thursday in Reno. The doubles teams of Simran Shah and Mark Bernales, and Artem Iermolov and Mathew Spagnolo were 3-0 for the Chargers, who will play Reno for a berth in the title match.
“A lot of our matches throughout the regular season weren’t very close,” Shah said. “I think it’s a big confidence booster to have a match like this, and still be able to (pull) it out in the end.”
Chase Kasday and Blake Kasday each went 3-0 in singles for Bonanza (15-3), which reached the state tournament for the first time since 2008. The teams were tied 3-3 after the first of three six-point rounds and the Chargers led 7-5 after the second.
But two Bengals victories in the third round forced Clark to sweat out the last two doubles sets.
Shah and Bernales clinched match point.
“We needed to check in to see how good our team really is,” Chargers coach Jordan Zimmel said. “It was really heart wrenching there for a little bit, and it had me nervous. But we pulled it out and that’s what it’s all about.”
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Contact reporter Willie Ramirez at lvcheetah@cox.net. Follow @WillieGRamirez on Twitter. Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.