Fullerton College lost 9-0 to OCC on Feb. 18, 2025 on their home court. The match started off with doubles and OCC was too overpowered for the Hornets.
The Line 1 doubles team of Arleth Vega-Estevez and Alyssa Lopez couldn’t get much going as the Pirates Line 1 team of Kei Chung and Tori Verela was too strong.
Early in the set, Lopez was struck in the head with a ball which caused an injury timeout. Lopez ended up being okay, but this killed any momentum Fullerton had. They found themselves down 3-0 and weren’t winning too many points. Chung had a repertoire of big serves and powerful overhead smashes. While her teammate Verela had some massive backhands that the team struggled to return.
Vega-Estevez and Lopez were overwhelmed as this was their toughest match of the season so far. The duo ended up losing the set 8-1.
“My overall thoughts are that I felt like I played pretty decent with some cross courts and they were honestly a pretty tough match, but I felt like my partner and I held our ground quite well throughout the match,” said Vega-Estevez.
The two matches in doubles were a blowout as well with Josie Miranda and Devyn Zuniga losing the set 8-0. Azurae Jefferey and Kayla Herbert also went down easily losing the set 8-0.
Throughout the doubles matches women’s Head Coach Yolanda Duron was supportive and said she was happy with how the women performed playing a powerhouse team.
“I thought they really challenged them to hit one more ball. You know, their depth on their shots were good. They got the ball out of the strike zone, so they were able to hit higher above the net. And they stayed in it in the match mentally,” said Duron.
The singles matches did not fair well either for the Hornets as they were swept 6-0. The Hornets tried their hardest and put up a tough battle but, at the end of the day, OCC found a way to win every set.
The Line 1 match between Josie Miranda of Fullerton College and Chung of OCC went back and forth with some long rallies in the first set.
Miranda found herself in a pickle starting off the set being down 4-1. But, in the sixth game, Miranda seemed to find her groove and was able to contain Chung’s powerful serves and was able to keep balls in the court with her excellent drop shots and slices. Miranda won the game and had great resilience to cut Chung’s lead to 4-2.
The rest of the set remained competitive and Miranda had very strong rallies to keep herself in the match. But Chung was only able to be contained for so long with her dominant net-front presence. Chung won the set 6-3 and was able to win the second set 6-1.
The Line 2 match between Justine Koo of Fullerton College and Mebuki Kitakuni was a hard-fought battle.
Kitakuni came out the gates powerful getting an early 3-0 lead to start. Koo had some very solid serve returns but Kitakuni’s forehands were just too good to return. Koo would end up losing the first set 6-0.
The second set was when things started heating up as Koo found her game. She started to play more aggressively, going with some massive forehands down the ally to finish her points. Koo was able to defend Kitakuni’s strong forehands with some deep lobs. Koo tried her best and put all her effort on the court but ended up losing the second set 6-3.
Fullerton took a stinging loss, but the girls remained positive and were ready to get back to practice to improve.
“Well, tomorrow we’ll come back to practice. You know, I don’t know that much about Saddleback. That’s the thing with community college tennis is that it changes so much year to year,” said Duron. “But basically we just need to get back to being more consistent, practicing consistently, practicing our poaching, and then get ready, you know you kind of have to have to have a little bit of amnesia out here, kind of forget the first match then get ready for the second one.”
The Hornets (3-1) are looking to rebound at their next match against Saddleback on Thursday, Feb. 20. The match will be hosted at Saddleback and will start at 2 p.m.
*This article was updated on Feb. 24, 2025.*
