Bakersfield, Glendale, and Santa Monica Split 2017 Women’s Tennis Title

Bakersfield College, Glendale College, and Santa Monica College all split the 2017 WSC Women's Tennis Title.
Bakersfield College, Glendale College, and Santa Monica College all split the 2017 WSC Women's Tennis Title.

For the first time in the Western State Conference's last 37 years the women's tennis team championship ended in a 3-way tie. Bakersfield College, Glendale College, and Santa Monica College, all finished at 10-2 in WSC play. It's the third straight conference title for Glendale, the first for Santa Monica since 2014 and sixth overall, and the first for Bakersfield since 2006 and fourth overall for the Renegades.

 For Glendale, the Vaqueros clinched their share in the last regular season match of the year. Facing Santa Monica College, the two schools split the singles right down the middle with Santa Monica taking the #1, #4, and #5 matches, while Glendale won at the #2 spot, #3 spot, and #6 spot. It would come down to the doubles, where Santa Monica took a 4-3 lead after their #1 doubles team won 8-3. Luckily for the Vaqueros their strength lied in the back end where Hailey McNall and Kanako Kihara won the #2 doubles match in a close one 8-6, and Melody Emmanouilidi and Alexa Mendez won the the #3 doubles match to give Glendale a hard fought 5-4 victory over the Corsairs. 

Santa Monica meanwhile could afford the last match loss thanks to a close victory over Glendale in their previous meeting 5-4, a match in which they won the #1, #2, and #4 singles matches before taking the #1 and #2 doubles matches 8-6 and 8-1. The Corsairs were also the only team to defeat Bakersfield College on the Renegades home court when they beat them 5-4, taking four of the six singles matches before clinching the match in the #1 doubles matchup, on March 16th.

Bakersfield was the only team of the three who couldn't affect that season ending match on April 4th. The Renegades wrapped up their regular season on March 28th with a 6-3 win at Ventura College. The Renegades split their regular season series with Glendale and Santa Monica, beating Glendale at home and losing to the Vaqueros on the road, and then doing the opposite with Santa Monica losing at home after beating Santa Monica on the road earlier in the year.