Turlock and Pitman high each had multiple singles players compete on Tuesday in the opening rounds of the Central California Conference girls tennis singles tournament in Atwater. However, only Turlock's number one singles player, Mila Johns, swept through her opponents and is now moving on to Thursday's championship match against Golden Valley's Dani Vigil.
“Overall it was not a bad day. Windy, very windy,” said Turlock head coach Linda Bejaran.
Johns was the number one singles player in the bracket coming into the tourney and was given a bye week in the opening round.
In the second round she beat Pitman's number one singles player, Sahemi Castorena, 6-1 and 6-1.
Johns continued her success in the third round by defeating the number three seeded player, GVs Chadu Lee, by a score of 6-0 and 6-3, which was good enough to launch her into the grand finale.
“Mila [Johns] was focused and played her game. She stepped up her footwork and that allowed her to play through the wind,” Bejaran said.
Turlock's number two singles player, Lauren Carlson, started off right after besting Ariana Arrar from Buhach in the opening round, 7-5 and 6-0. But she then lost to Merced's Jaymee Illescas, 6-4, 5-7 and 4-6.
Pitman's Castorena and Barbara Beasley made it into the second round before getting knocked out of the tourney.
“I was thrilled with the girls. They played great. They represented themselves and Pitman superbly,” Pitman head coach Doug Reimers said. “Both of them brought the best tennis I've seen them play all year to the tournament.”
In the first round, Castorena defeated Seana Keegan of Buhach Colony, 6-1 and 6-3.
Beasley topped Atwater's Alexie Ponce, 6-0 and 6-0.
In the second round, things ended quickly for Castorena who fell to Johns while Beasley started off on fire but eventually fell to the number two ranked player in the tournament, Vigil, 6-3, 0-6 and 2-6.
“Barbara was chasing down every shot and returning them at her opponents with pace and precision,” Reimers said. “Sahemi mixed consistency with deep shots to keep her opponent off balance and win games. I could not be prouder of these two seniors that showed the quality of athlete we have at Pitman.”
