Local Digest: MJC men’s and women’s tennis enjoy title-clinching day
Friday will go down as the best day in the recent history of Modesto Junior College tennis.
The MJC men’s and women’s teams clinched titles at home with 9-0 victories over Sacramento City, and neither team dropped a set. The women (8-0), ranked No. 1 in Northern California, annexed an outright Big 8-South title and the Pirates’ first since 2010.
Vanessa Teves and Chiara Adamo, the Pirates’ top singles players and unbeaten in doubles, set the tone for the shutout. Modesto set the foundation to its title by sweeping defending champion Fresno by identical 6-3 scores.
“I knew we would be good. I didn’t know how we would match up with Fresno,” coach Milan Motroni said. “We matched up pretty good.”
The women will meet American River next Friday in nonleague action before the Big 8-South tournament April 2-4 at in Fresno. MJC also will be the host team for its matches in the NorCal Team Playoffs.
The MJC men (7-1) also are celebrating after their league-ending victory. The Pirates’ Big 8 mountain proved more steep to climb, however, than the women. Their major adversary was Fresno, the three-time reigning state champion.
Fresno prevailed 6-3 in the first meeting, but MJC answered with an emotional 5-4 decision at home on March 6. The match was deadlocked 4-4 and came down to the No. 6 singles match, where Modesto’s Jake Varner – trailing 0-4 in the third set – rallied to take the final six games for the clutch victory. That’s how Fresno and Modesto eventually shared the league title, the Pirates’ first since 2007.
“Jake really persevered in that match,” coach Shawn Black said. “We talked about the team improving every day this season. The team took it to heart.”
The MJC men, ranked sixth in NorCal, will warm up for the playoffs with a nonleague match next week against Folsom Lake.
Track and field
Meet victory – Sarah Mayfield (800), Alexandra Golikov (hammer throw) and 4x400-meter relay members Harleen Pabla, Nicole Hobby, Mayfield and Lyric Anderson were victorious as MJC won the Bob Rush Invitational at College of San Mateo. Modesto topped the 11-team field with 172 points, far ahead of runner-up Sacramento.
Mayfield was timed in 2 minutes, 20.83 seconds to win the 800, and Golikov threw 139 feet, 10 inches. The relay quartet ran to the win in 4:05.13. Anderson also placed second in the 100 and 200. MJC padded its point total with six runner-up finishes.
For the men, MJC’s Daniel Roberts won the shot put (59-91/2) and discus (165-5) and took third in the hammer at the Rush Invitational. The Pirates tied for seventh.
Baseball
Twin losses – Cal State Stanislaus extended its losing streak to eight by dropping a California Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Sonoma State 7-5 and 7-0, the latter on a seven-inning no-hitter by Ryan Luna.
The Warriors (6-17, 1-12) led the opener 5-2, thanks to a three-run triple by Marcus Mastrobuoni, until the Seawolves’ five-run fifth. Stanislaus stranded the tying run in scoring position in the ninth.
Luna struck out nine and walked two during his masterpiece. The teams meet for another doubleheader today at Stanislaus at 2 p.m.
This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Local Digest: MJC men’s and women’s tennis enjoy title-clinching day."