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Bulldogs finish win over Pitman, suffer first loss to Gregori
Turlock tennis
Turlock's Hannah Sahota walked away from her continued match against Pitman with a win, helping the Bulldogs secure the overall victory (CHRISTOPHER CORREA/The Journal).

The Turlock High girls tennis squad finished up their match against Pitman High on Friday with a pair of match wins, which secured an overall victory for the Bulldogs. On Thursday, however, the team suffered their first loss of the regular season by one match to Gregori High.

The matchup between the crosstown rivals, Turlock and Pitman, originally began on Tuesday evening, but after nearly four hours of play, the last two matches were delayed until Friday afternoon due to darkness at the Pitman tennis courts. At the time, the Pride were winning four matches to three. Friday’s continuation play saw the completion of the final two matches, a singles contest between Turlock’s Hannah Sahota and Pitman’s Alice Stessman, and a doubles contest between Turlock’s Kali Barindelli and Chloe Barrett and Pitman’s Nevaeh Montoya and Emily Hasten-Perez.

In the singles match, Sahota returned to the courts carrying a 6-3 set win. She came back strong to finish up the second set by a score of 6-1 and secured her match win.  In the doubles match, the two duos returned to the courts all tied up with one set apiece. On day one, Montoya and Hasten-Perez claimed the first set 6-4 while Barindelli and Barrett tied things up with a 6-2 set win. Day two proved to favor the Bulldogs as the Turlock duo won the tiebreaking third set by a score of 6-3.

The Bulldogs did not finish their season with the perfect record they dreamed of, though. On Thursday, the Bulldogs took on the Jaguars of Gregori High in the regularly scheduled Central California Athletic League season finale. After back-and-forth intense play, the Jaguars came out victorious with a 5-4 win.

With the result, the Bulldogs and Jaguars each finish with 9-1 records in league play, meaning that they will share the 2022 CCAL championship. The two teams will now shift their focus to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. Official brackets are expected to be released on Friday.