El Camino claims first-ever CCCAA Women's Tennis Championship and caps unbeaten season

BAKERSFIELD – El Camino College coach Steven Van Kanegan knew he had a special team in the fall, so to see it all come to fruition in the spring brought extreme satisfaction to the Warriors’ head coach after his squad turned back a gallant effort by Cañada College on Saturday, 5-1, to claim the program’s first-ever CCCAA Women’s Tennis Championship.

The victory capped a perfect 17-0 season for El Camino, which was appearing in its first state championship. The Warriors opened play on Saturday by winning two of the three doubles contests before clinching the match with a trio of singles wins. 

Van Kanegan had an all-freshman squad for the 2022 season but despite the youthfulness, he was optimistic about the Warriors’ potential.

“We’re completely satisfied, it was exciting,” he said. “We believed this was a strong possibility in the fall. They developed a rapport early and we played as a team so it was great to see.

“We had obstacles to face,” he added. “We played on a different schools’ court for the entire year until our last two matches, so that was tough (because) we were traveling every match. We had a couple of setbacks but they all stayed together and it was kind of fun to watch everybody improve their game and work hard as a team. It was cool.”

El Camino got off to a good start with doubles wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Julie Jones and Kekoa Vaefa teamed for an 8-3 win over Zuzia Dziewiecka and Josie Thompson at No. 1 while Danay Holman and Kayla Brown earned an 8-2 win over Michaela Llewelyn and Lauren Denenberg at No. 2. 

Cañada wasn’t about to go away, though, picking up a hard-fought 9-7 win by Susan Kettering and Claudia Westrum at No. 2 to give the Colts enthusiasm heading into singles play.

Josie Thompson won her first set, 6-2, against Holman to give Cañada some momentum but the Warriors swept the remaining opening sets to set themselves up to try and close it out. Vaefa was victorious, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2, Brown won 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4 and Stefanie Liebich posted a 6-0, 6-0 shutout at No. 5 to clinch El Camino the state championship.

El Camino had nine shutouts among its 17 wins. Cañada, which won a share of the Coast Conference Championship, finished its impressive season with a 14-2 record.

CCCAA WOMEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Bakersfield Racquet Club (Bakersfield, Calif.)

EL CAMINO 5, CAÑADA 1
Singles
No. 1 - Julia Jones (ECC) vs. Zuzia Dziewiecka (C), 6-0, 6-6 (stopped)
No. 2 - Kekoa Vaefa (ECC) d. Michaela Llewelyn (C), 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 -  Danay Holman (ECC) vs. Josie Thompson (C), 2-6, 5-3, (stopped)
No. 4 -  Kayla Brown (ECC) def. Lauren Denenberg (C), 6-1, 6-4
No. 5 -  Stefanie Liebich (ECC) def. Corlnne Mehring (C), 6-0, 6-0
No. 6 -  Madeline Evans (ECC) vs. Claudia Westrum (C), 6-2, 5-3

Order of finish: 4,5,2

Doubles
No. 1 -  Jones-Vaefa (ECC) def. Dziewiecka-Thompson (C), 8-3
No. 2 -  Brown-Holman (ECC) def. Llewelyn- Denenberg (C), 8-2
No. 3 -  Susan Kettering-Westrum (C) def. Liebich-Evans (ECC), 9-7

Order of finish: 1, 2, 3

(Mike Robles, CCCAA)