Fullerton’s women’s tennis has been on a tear this season, led by star players Josie Miranda and Justine Koo. They have managed to go 6-4 on the season prior to this match on Tuesday, March 18. The Hornets have had one of the toughest schedules out of any team in the OEC this year, with their only losses being to some of the best teams in the state. The match on Tuesday did not go their way, as they had to face a powerhouse squad.
The team came into this match well-prepped, knowing they had to play lights out to beat the Tigers. Riverside swept FC in their previous matchup on Feb. 27 and the players wanted to prove they had more to give in this match.
Double’s partners Miranda and Koo got off to a hot start winning their first game to start the set. Their opponents Janine Kremling and Denise Campbell, were no joke though and had a big height advantage over the Hornets. This advantage would not make anything different for the duo as they committed to sticking to their gameplan.
“A lot of our points before we played, we were actually planning where to stand, where to place ourselves and our communication was so amazing today,” said Miranda.
“Some points we decided to play both back because if they hit it really hard, it would be a more strategic option,” said Koo.
This Line 1 matchup went back-and-forth with each team taking the lead many different times during the set. With the set being 2-1 at the time, Miranda kills a long rally with a cutting drop shot to end that game. This gave Miranda the service on the next game. She had two winning points in a row, as she hit two groundstrokes that barely squeaked above the net, making her opponents miss the return. Koo then hit an unreturnable volley to keep the game afloat.
As they were down 3-2, something must have clicked for Miranda and Koo. They remained calm and kept the ball in play to let Campbell make the unforced errors. On her service, Koo had two monster aces and the duo picked two games off of Campbell and Kremling. Koo went on to finish the next game with a passing shot to give FC three unanswered games.
Skipping ahead to the latter half of the set, both players stood their ground at the net. Miranda was poaching volleys to close out points and Koo was putting away points with overhead smashes.
Being down 7-6, the duo was on the brink of defeat. They made sure to keep the ball in play and not make any unforced errors. But, Campbell had different intentions and finished the set off with a powerful passing shot to give Riverside the 8-6 win.
Despite losing, Miranda and Koo had highlighted the stronger parts of their game.
“I had some pretty good volleys. I didn’t try and crush the ball how I usually do with my groundstrokes. My serves were good too,” said Koo. “My aggressiveness at the net, I actually never poach or volley, but I think I did pretty well at the net,” said Miranda.
The two other doubles matches weren’t as competitive as Arleth Vega-Estevez and Alyssa Lopez lost 8-0. Devyn Zuniga and Giana Morales lost their set 8-1.
The singles matches displayed some exciting moments. The highly anticipated match between Hornet’s Koo and Riverside’s Jordyn Sundberg had compelling moments.
This was a tough matchup for Koo despite her own talents, Sundberg is one of the best JUCO women’s tennis players. Sundberg finished first in a recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association Tournament.
Koo got off to an early 3-0 lead in the first set, but Sundberg turned the match around, won the next six games to claim set 1 and won the next set 6-0. Koo never let herself lose points off errors, Sundberg had to hit winners to win points. Sundberg had a compilation of winners, mainly won by crosscourt forehands.
Five out of six singles games were lost by Fullerton. All matches were over, except Rae Jeffrey of Fullerton who gave it all she had.
She split the sets 6-4, 4-6 which forced the match to go into a tiebreaker, which is first to 10 points. Jeffrey and her opponent Bridget Bradbury both played very conservatively, just trying to keep the ball in play. Jeffrey got a good break as her let serve just dropped over the net to give her the 4-3 lead. Lots of lead changes occurred and the tiebreaker felt everlasting. Both teams were watching from the viewing court and were cheering on their teammates, especially Fullerton as they wanted Jeffrey to win to avoid “the donut.”
Unfortunately, Jeffrey lost the tiebreaker 10-8 and the Hornets lost 9-0 collectively.
“She played really well, it was actually pretty evenly matched. I think she just got a little tight in certain situations, but overall she played well,” said Coach Yolanda Duron about Jeffrey’s performance.
Fullerton looks to rebound at their next game vs Ventura on Saturday, March 22 at 12 p.m.
