Central Catholic wins D-III tennis title
Central Catholic High School captured the girls team tennis championship for the first time in nearly three decades on Wednesday, defeating River City 5-4 in a dramatic, come-from-behind victory in West Sacramento.
The last blue banner for the Raiders came in 1986, when they were led by four-time singles champion Christy Pohl, now Christy Perez, the coach of this year’s squad.
“We’re just so excited,” said Perez, who played for two national D-II runners-up at UC Davis. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way they fought back.”
Central Catholic trailed 4-1 in the best of nine, with only No. 3 singles player Emma Withrow in the books with a win – a 6-2, 6-0 cakewalk over Jessica Ngu.
Four matches still were being contested – all knotted at one set apiece.
“It could have gone either way,” Perez said. “In each of those four games we needed to win, we lost the first set.”
No. 1 singles player Payton Kelly overcame a sluggish start to beat Julia Quenga 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. No. 2 player Amie Ardis rallied to beat Beatrice Bui 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and the top doubles tandem of Brigid Crowley and Gianna DeGiovanni battled back for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over Teresa Huynh and Mallory Snarr.
That only left No. 5 singles player Rosella Rangel on the court with Jessie Olsen, who took the first set 6-3.
“It was super nerve racking because everyone was watching the whole time and people were cheering and every point really counted,” Rangel said. “It was scary.”
Rangel found herself in a tiebreaker for the second set, winning 7-4 when Olsen put her return into the net.
“I think at that point, Rosella was starting to frustrate (Olsen) and she started making some errors,” Perez said. “Rosella just played steady and was very active on the baseline and getting everything back.”
Sensing she had the momentum, Rangel went up a break early in the third and held on for a 6-3 win to give CC the title.
“The first set was really back and forth and I just felt like I could beat her,” said Rangel, a junior. “I just told myself, ‘This is the last match of the season; put everything into it.’ And I turned it around.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2014 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Central Catholic wins D-III tennis title."