Orange Coast opens women's tennis playoffs with 5-0 win over Ventura

3C2A Men's and Women's Tennis Regional Bracket

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College women's tennis team got the postseason off on the right foot with a convincing 5-0 win over Ventura College in the opening round of the Southern California Dual Regional Playoffs on Tuesday at the OCC Tennis Complex.

With the win, the second-seeded Pirates will take on the winner of Tuesday's other first-round matchup between Mt. San Antonio and Santa Barbara City College on Tuesday, April 15 at 2 p.m. at OCC.

Coast set the tone of the playoff showdown with the VC Pirates (9-8) early as they rolled through doubles play. The trio duos of Tori Varela/Ava Bocek (8-3), Mebuki Kitakumi/Kaylee Ho (8-3) and Kayla Cheng/Breckyn Burg (8-0) made quick work of their Ventura counterparts, putting OCC up 3-0 in the race to five wins.

The fun continued for the OCC Pirates in singles play with a pair of quick wins by Varela (6-0, 6-0) at No. 3 and Sydney Friesan (6-0, 6-1) at No. 6, ending the other matches before their completions. Kitakumi (6-4, 3-1), Ho (6-0, 5-2), Bocek (6-0, 3-2) and Kei Chung (7-6) were all ahead in their singles matches, but once a matchup reaches five wins in the playoffs, the rest of the matches are halted.

The win improves OCC's impressive record to 16-1. Next week's second-round contest against either the Mounties (14-2) or the Vaqueros (12-2) will be the first meeting of the season for the Pirates.

(Tony Altobelli, Orange Coast College Athletics)