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Friday, Nov. 06, 2009
Tennis: Merced doubles its pleasure
ATWATER -- The small crowd of parents seated courtside cheered "Go, Merced!" with every stroke, confident their own would eventually emerge a Central California Conference doubles champion.
And why not?
Merced couldn't lose on Thursday at Buhach Colony.
Merced Sun-Star - Merced's Lizzie Sofranek (left) and Stephanie Isenberg beat teammates Alexa Lawler and Janet Xu for the CCC doubles championship on Thursday.
Literally.
The unseeded tandem of Alexa Lawler and Janet Xu sprung the afternoon's only major upset, beating Turlock's Aubree Brenda and Kaitlyn Ireland in three sets in the semifinal.
The win set up an all-Merced showdown with Lizzie Sofranek and Stephanie Isenberg in the final, guaranteeing Merced both of the CCC's doubles entries into next week's Sac-Joaquin Section individual tournament.
Sofranek and Isenberg lived up to their billing as the tournament's top seed, pulling away from their teammates in the final match, 6-2, 6-3.
Merced coach Judy Douglas was almost speechless. In 17 seasons under her care, this was the first time Merced placed two teams in the conference final.
Douglas enjoyed the moment, finding some shade and a chair, rooting playfully for Merced to win.
"You don't coach. You don't have to," she said. "You just sit back and enjoy the match. This was the first time anything like this has happened to me. I think it's pretty cool."
Los Banos freshman Alexis Barcellos lost to Turlock's Elise Cusenza in the singles final, 6-2, 6-1.
Cusenza won all three of their meetings this season.
The postseason begins on Monday with the first round of the team tennis tournament.
Merced, the CCC runnerup, will travel to Modesto, the Modesto Metro Conference champion.
The individual tournament gets underway on Thursday, Nov. 12 at the In-Shape Sports Club on West Lane in Stockton.
The tournament will be seeded that morning.
Lawler and Xu didn't luck their way into the semifinal round on Thursday. The two were undefeated in doubles in the regular season last year and coasted through their first two matches Thursday.
They weren't, however, expected to beat Brenda and Ireland, the No. 2 seed.
The two Merced upstarts made it look convincing in the end, rebounding from a rough second set for a 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 6-2 win.
"I didn't expect them to get by Brenda and Ireland. Those girls are very good doubles players, very experienced," Douglas said. "But whenever they thought they had a winner, our girls would hit it back one more time. (Lawler and Xu) played a very smart game of tennis."
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