THOMAS, JONES FALL TWO POINTS SHORT OF STATE, WRIGHT, VIDAL NEARLY ADVANCE

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

VENTURA - The Marauder women's tennis team has made huge strides throughout the season and it showed at the Western State Conference tennis championships at Ventura College.

Janice Thomas and Jaime Jones fell just two points short of making the state championships in Ojai after losing to Victor Valley, 8-8 (13-11). Both teams held serve thorughout the entire match with no team able to take advantage.

After splitting the 16 games, the match went to a tie break. Thomas and Jones led 5-2 before Victor Valley rallied to tie the set. The duo from AVC had its chances and had match point on two separate occasions but unforced errors helped the Rams seal the victory.

Thomas and Jones easily defeated a second team from COC in the opening round, 8-3. They were then defeated by a tough Glendale team in the second round, 8-3.

Janice Vidal and Cornett Wright had an opportunity to advance to Ojai on Sunday, however, they were defeated by College of the Canyons, 8-0. Vidal and Wright nearly propelled themselves into the state championships in their precious match, but they fell short losing to Santa Barbara City, 8-5. The two put themselves in a good position needing only to win one match after defeating another pair from Canyons.

Jones and Viktoriia Belogonova each advanced to the second round in singles. Jones defeated Ventura's Chelsea Carmichael, 8-5. Belogonova avenged an earlier season loss to Chelsea Wambolt, defeating her 8-5. Thomas, Wright, Vidal and Alondra Collier each lost their opening round matches.