Down one set in her singles tennis match on Tuesday, East High’s Valentina Garcia was feeling uneasy and in unfamiliar territory.
“I was so scared,” said Garcia, the Blades’ No. 4 player. “What if it comes down to my match? What if I mess up? But then I thought about the other girls on my team. Our connection made me really want to keep going.”
Garcia rallied from a 2-6 first-set loss, won 6-4 in the second to force a 10-point tiebreaking third set, which she won 10-7 over Kerman’s Nella Quaresma. The win was the difference for the Blades, the No. 2 seed in the CIF Central Section Division III playoffs, in a 5-4 semifinal victory over the visiting Lions, who were seeded third.
As a result, East, which improved its overall season record to 30-0, advanced to the division final and will face No. 1 seed Lompoc, a 9-0 winner in Tuesday’s other semifinal match over No. 4 Frontier, for the championship on Nov. 12.
“It’s just a matter of them believing in themselves,” East Coach Marty Martinez said at the match’s conclusion. “Anything is possible. It’s all about the effort and that’s what they did. They gave it their all.”
Initially, though, Martinez noticed during the three doubles matches to start the day, his players weren’t playing to win, rather tight and unlike they’ve been all season.
East eventually prevailed, winning two doubles matches by 8-5 scores at No. 2 with Gia Gutierrez and Garcia over Kerman’s Johanna Sauceda and Jayda Campos, and No. 3 with Joselin Sandoval and Aimee Guerrero over Sofia Quinones and Briseyda Tovar.
Kerman’s top doubles team of Sydney Yep and Quaresma knocked off East’s No. 1 Arianna Aguilar and Amalia Rickard, 8-5.
That left the Blades needing three singles wins to prevail. And, for much of the singles round, match scores were tight. Aguilar lost to Yep, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1, but No. 2 Sandoval and No. 3 Gutierrez put East on the brink of victory. Sandoval had the best performance with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Kerman’s Sauceda.
“I though my placement was pretty good,” Sandoval said. “She’d lob it to me and I’d do a drop shot back. I was placing the ball and it was hard for her to get to it.”
Gutierrez, meanwhile, won a tough first set 7-5 over Campos before settling in and recording a 6-2 score in the second.
That left one more victory among three singles players. Annye Rodarte at No. 6 fell to Emilly Cantor 6-0, 6-2 to put Kerman down only two points.
It was literally up to Garcia to win her match for a point and give East the chance to compete for the division title.
“This was my hardest match all season. She was making me run and to rethink everything I was doing,’ Garcia said of Quaresma’s play.
The pressure turned to glee as she claimed the second set victory. She also got a pep talk from her coach.
“He came and talked to me and said, ‘you can do this.’ I felt he believed in me and that made me believe in myself even more. The team was watching me and I knew I had to do this.”
Garcia and Quaresma battled to 6-6 before Garcia won the 10-point tiebreaker.
The final score came when No. 5 singles player Alina Leyva reached a third-set tiebreaker, but Kerman’s Emily Calzada won, 4-6, 6-2 and 11-9.
