It took three days to do it, but Westlake girls tennis captured its second straight CIF Southern Section championship when it beat Calabasas 10-8 on Nov. 18 for the Division 1 crown.
The match had begun in Redlands two days before, but rain had forced the contest to be finished two days later.
“I’ve done this a bunch of times and it’s always very stressful — it ages me probably five years,” Westlake head coach Scott Yasgoor said with a laugh. “This one was a slow burn because you had Saturday and Sunday and Monday and I’m thinking, pondering, what if, what if? It was not easy stretching this thing out.”
The CIF-SS agreed to let the teams finish the match at North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks, which was closer to both Westlake and Calabasas and also allowed for roughly 100 fans to attend.
It was the biggest crowd Westlake had played in front of all season, but the Warriors were well-prepared. Yasgoor carefully created doubles pairs that had the right combination of experience and new talent.
The No. 2 doubles pairing of Senior Danica Backes Jedrzejek and freshman Kyla Bruno went 14-1 this season. The No. 1 pair of Gwen Snowden and Victoria Zong and the No. 3 pair of seniors Liv Nardiello and Alex Marco were valuable as well. The doubles teams won seven out of nine sets in the championship.
“You could see how the senior kept the freshman calm in pressure situations,” Yasgoor said. “Even though the freshman’s a great player, when there’s 100 people out there watching, it’s a lot different than a Saturday tennis tournament where it’s just your parents.”
Sophomore Michelle Qi was the No. 1 singles player, freshman Sania Goregaoker was No. 2 and junior Chloe Wang was No. 3. Goregaoker won a critical tiebreaker set in the finals to help Westlake secure the win.
The Warriors beat top-seeded Mira Costa 10-8 in the quarterfinals and defeated Notre Dame 11-7 in the semifinals to advance and play third-seeded Calabasas in the final round.
Westlake had beaten Calabasas in tiebreakers during the regular season in September. In October, the Coyotes beat the Warriors and the two teams shared the Marmonte League title.
Winning the rubber match over the course of three days was a gauntlet that Yasgoor says will only make next season’s returners stronger.
“My seniors four years ago were bright-eyed and they’ve got that experience of winning and they’re able to pay it forward to the freshmen who will now have all that experience,” he said. “You keep passing down that experience to the next incoming class and it just pays huge dividends because everybody keeps getting more seasoned.”