MARAUDER WOMEN'S TENNIS CONTINUES TO IMPROVE

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

LANCASTER - The last time the Marauder women's tennis team played College of the Canyons, it was defeated, 9-0.

Since, the Marauders have continued to improve and was only defeated 6-3 on Tuesday afternoon at Antelope Valley College.

Janice Thomas was the only women's player to win both singles and doubles. Thomas easily defeated the Cougars' Genises Ordonez, 6-2, 6-0. Teammate Brianna Maldonado was the other singles to win as AVC's N. 1 player defeated COC's No. 1 Jenny Cranert, 6-1, 6-0.

Thomas teamed with Alondra Collier to defeat the Cougars' Ordonez and Ruth Kedrowski, 8-6.

"As a team we're very hardworking and dedicated to the sport of tennis," Thomas said. "If we don't win a match, its not a loss in our eyes. It is a learning experience to work on what we didn't execute the right way and come back ten times harder. Today, I thoguht I played with more confidence and didn't get in my head as much."

The closest match of the afternoon was No. 4 singles AVC's Jaime Jones. Jones went up 5-4, up a break and served fir the set, however, opponent Brienna Best won the next three games and the set, 7-5. Best led 5-2 in the second set, but Jones was able to battle back to 5-4 before losing the set, 6-4.

AVC trailed 4-2 following the singles and had an opportunity to win the match, if it would win all three doubles' matches. Viktoriia Belogonova teamed with Jones only to lose to Best and Melissa Wambolt, 8-5. Janice Vidal teamed with Maldonado, however, the pair was defeated by Cranert and Leilani Figalan, 8-6, in a close set.

The Marauders travel to Victor Valley on Thursday at 2pm.