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Pitmans Britney Leon is new CCC singles champ
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Pitman High’s Britney Leon spent last season competing on the tennis court in the doubles bracket but her sights were always set on singles glory. She worked on her game through the summer and when the 2012 season began she found herself representing the Pride as the number one singles player, positioning herself as the unquestioned leader of her team.

Now, at the end of the season, Leon has found herself in another coveted role — champion. After a long year and two days of intense competition, Leon earned the Central California Conference Singles Championship with a 2-1 victory over Merced’s Charlotte Sofranek last Thursday.

“That’s always been my goal, to make it to the championship round and win,” Leon said. “It was a longtime coming; it felt pretty good.”

Leon and Sofranek split sets to open up the finals match, Leon taking the first 6-4 and Sofranek taking the second 6-1. Coming into the finals match the two players were even at one match a piece during league play, creating the ultimate tie breaker between relatively even players to decide who would be champion. Leon dug deep and relied on her strong base line game to dispatch Merced’s top Bear 6-1.

“She was very confident before the match because she hadn’t dropped a set the entire tournament,” Pitman’s head coach Doug Reimers said. “She knew going into the finals she would have to play her best.”

Leon will not represent the CCC at the Sac-Joaquin Section Tournament on November 1st and 2nd. To prepare, Leon is working exclusively with Reimers and her mother Terri Leon, a routine she has followed all year to good results.

“I’m practicing every day,” Leon said. “I know the competition is going to be high so I have to leave everything on the court.”

“I know it’s going to be hard but I won’t give up,” she added.