2020 Season Interrupted: Highlights From South Coast Conference Women's Tennis
El Camino College was on its way to a probable repeat as South Coast Conference women's tennis team champion when the unthinkable hit in March.
The 2020 South Coast Conference tennis season was cancelled due to the worldwide health crisis with the end result producing no SCC team champion or individual singles/doubles champions, but it doesn't take away the performances of SCC teams and their individual players.
El Camino had swept its way through the halfway mark of conference play at 4-0 in the 5-team SCC. The Warriors, 9-2 overall, only lost two team points in the process, outscoring the other conference squads, 33-2. ECC won its seventh straight, an 8-1 non-conference victory over Glendale on March 11, a day before the sports world changed on a dime with the discovery that the Covid-19 virus was beginning to spread like a wildfire throughout the United States.
College of the Desert stood at 4-2 overall and 2-1 in SCC play while Rio Hondo was 4-5 and 1-2. Cerritos had a tough start at 1-10 and 0-3 and Victor Valley had lost its only match played to that point. Both Mt. San Antonio and Mt. San Jacinto ended up not fielding teams for the '20 season. COD, MSJC and VVC all are hosted into the South Coast from the Inland Empire Athletic Conference because no other IEAC colleges carry the sport.
Individually, ECC's #1 singles player Lindsay Guise and #2 Kekoa Vaefa each had 8-2 records with Guise recording an impressive nine set wins by 6-0 counts. Guise and Vaefa were perfect in #1 doubles play at 9-0 as a duo. The Warriors' #2 squad also played well as Kayla Brown and Leah Phillips were 9-2 in their matches.
Desert's #1 player Shekinah Daffon was a perfect 6-0 in singles and was 4-2 in doubles, five of those matches partnered with Hannah Johnson. Agustino Berrondo was 4-2 in both #2 singles and #2 doubles with teammate Kiara Bragg.
Rio Hondo had some strong matches from #1 player Gabriella Tellez and a tough competitor in #3 Monique Rojas. Cerritos was led by #2 singles Clara Kim and effective play from #5 Mikaela Ramirez with a team-high five match wins. Although early in its season, Victor Valley's #1 player in its opener was Abby Corey.
Click for South Coast Conference Final Team Records