Glendale Community College women’s tennis gearing up for next wave of action

Having completed an exhausting stretch of competition, which included picking up a postseason victory, the members of the Glendale Community College women’s tennis team spent Wednesday off the court.

The Vaqueros, who won the Western State Conference championship for the first time in program history, were in the trainer’s room receiving treatment for an assortment of aches and pains accumulated over the course of the lengthy and historic season. Glendale returned to the court Thursday to put in the final preparations of what’s expected to be another grueling series of matches.

Glendale will have four players participate in the conference tournament on Friday. Second-seeded Glendale (16-2) will then meet fourth-seeded Cerritos (19-6) in a semifinal match of the Southern California Regionals at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Glendale.

Glendale second-year Coach Deo Sy, whose team began the playoffs Tuesday with a 5-2 home victory against seventh-seeded Irvine Valley, said health might be the most critical element throughout the playoffs.

“They are beat up a bit and that’s what happens when you play a lot of matches,” Sy said. “You body takes a toll from all of that competition, so you look to get the treatment and try to minimize any injuries you might have.

“At the same time, we are excited with extending the season. It’s going to be tough, but we like how we are playing right now.”

Glendale will have Amy Shigenaga, Elizabeth Sanchez, Brigitta Benitez and Meredy Gharabegi take part in the conference tournament Friday at Ventura College. Shigenaga will meet Mayra Jovic of Santa Monica College in the singles championship at noon. Shigenaga and Sanchez will face Jovic and Izabel Nazdracheva and Benitez and Gharabegi will take on Ventura’s Yannick Garcia and Bailey Sindle in semifinal doubles matches at 2 p.m. at the same venue. The doubles final will begin around 4.

All of the participants have already qualified for the Ojai Invitational, which will be held April 23-26.

“Amy is playing so well right now and it would be great to see her win the conference title,” said Sy, whose team has won seven matches in a row. “She’s going up against an excellent player in Mayra.

“It would be awesome if both of our doubles teams could get to the final. It’s going to be about pushing yourself to the limit in order to win [the conference championship].”

Glendale will then have several days to get set for a rematch with Cerritos, which began the playoffs with a 5-2 win against fifth-seeded Santa Barbara. The winner will meet top-seeded Mount San Antonio College or third-seeded Riverside in the Southern California final April 18 at a site to be determined.

Glendale and Cerritos are not strangers to one another. Glendale posted a 7-2 nonconference road win against Cerritos on Feb. 3.

“It was one of those matches where the nerves started to kick in,” said Sy, whose team rallied from a 2-1 deficit and won four singles sets to topple Irvine Valley. “Compared to February, we are a lot more confidence with our abilities.

“We know we are going to have to be ready. You know Cerritos will be a lot better, too. It’s going to be close and I can see it going either way.”

Glendale sophomore Meghedi Mooradian (Hoover High) said the Vaqueros relish the challenges ahead.

“We’ve been playing well all season long and we’ve been trying our best to win a lot of matches,” Mooradian said. “A lot of us are trying to recover from injuries, but we’re excited to have gotten this far.

“We just want to keep it going.”

While Glendale’s men’s team, which finished second in conference, did not qualify for the playoffs, it still has individuals taking part Friday in the conference tournament, as well.

Oleg Simonyan and Hosep Orojian and Christopher Pope and Cameron Braun will compete in semifinal doubles matches at Ventura College.