By Ashley Gomez

The Riverside City College women’s tennis team lost against Orange Coast College in the Southern California Regional Finals.

The Orange Coast Pirates outscored the Tigers, 5-2, in Costa Mesa on April 20. This was the third time that these two teams played each other, with the Pirates winning the first two matches.

The Pirates scored the opening point of the match in doubles, with the Tigers duo of of Maxelle Bernie and Torrey Mateljan losing 8-0 against the Pirates duo of Miri Inoue and Nicole Knickerbocker.

In the second and third matchups, Heather Graf and Yasmin Johnson took on the Pirates, Shayee Sherif and Camryn Mason, who won their set 8-6.

In the singles competition, the Pirates increased their lead in back-to-back matchups to put the Pirates ahead on the scoreboard 4-1.

Riverside came short in tying the match 6-6, but a costly double faults turned the score to 7-5 in favor of the Pirates. Sherif and Mason won the set 8-6.

The Tigers prevailed in the third overall doubles matchup, 8-5, which gave the Pirates a lead of 2-1.

The Tigers would win in the sixth singles match to make the score 4-2. In the fifth bout, Johnson pulled off a 6-4 win in the singles competition.

The Pirates would end the game to win 5-2, advancing them to the California Community College Athletic Association State Finals.

The Tigers conclude the 2019 season with an overall record of 17-3, which is an improvement of last year’s record of 11-8.

“The team did what was expected,” head coach Nikki Bonzoumet said. “They knew that they deserved to be here and they performed incredibly. It’s on to the next season.”