Panthers complete perfect 12-0 season

Neither coach Kurt Nielsen nor his players could envision another perfect season.

They’d lost a sizeable portion of the lineup that had gone 12-0 in the EYL in 2008 and looked to battle Monache for the crown.

That hypothesis turned out to be incorrect as the Panthers, who had already had a six-point win over their rivals in September, cemented their second straight undefeated EYL championship with a 13-5 victory over Monache (7-3-2 EYL), at home, Wednesday night.

Nielsen said clutch play separated his team from the rest of the EYL.

“All of our girls were very tough mentally,” Nielsen said. “You can’t coach that. They weren’t the best practicing team I’ve had. I’ve jokingly criticized them for wanting to cut every practice short and not do drills. But when it came down to crunch time, they won so many of the close sets. They did that when some of my other teams maybe haven’t. They were determined in their own minds to try to go undefeated.”

No. 2 singles player Nicole Ervin didn’t think another unbeaten league campaign was in the cards, but started to realize her team had the ability as the season progressed.

“(I didn’t think we could) when we started practicing at the beginning of the summer, but when we started winning, everybody improved a lot,” Ervin said. “We wanted to go 12-0 again.”

After clinching the outright EYL championship last week, Porterville had to beat both city opponents with little on the line.

“We talked about, ‘Hey, you’ve got it wrapped up now with a week left. What kind of team is gonna show up?’ They were all confident they could close the deal,” Nielsen said.

Porterville kept its usual lineup and had its top players face Jasmine Martinez this time. Martinez, who finished unbeaten in EYL singles, beat Ervin 6-1 and Shiloah Gibson 6-2, but Monache mustered just one non-Martinez win in the first two rounds, giving Porterville a 9-3 lead going into round three.

“One person can’t carry the team in spite of what anybody thinks,” Monache coach Gary Perez said. “You’ve gotta have a supporting cast.”

The Panthers’ supporting cast flourished with two doubles wins apiece from the Alisia Scudder-Larissa Clem and Alecia Gonzales-Nancy Valdez teams and two 6-0 round-two singles wins from Ervin and No. 3 player Nettie Roman.

Perez said the remainder of his lineup couldn’t find the consistency it sought all season.

“It was a really strange season,” he said. “I’d have girls play very well then the following week, somebody else would rise up and they would sink down.”

In round three, Martinez and Tiffany Camat beat Gibson-Ervin 6-2 but the Panthers’ singles players sealed the championship. Clem shut out Noreen Baloch while Scudder blanked Carli Miller. Alecia Gonzales, who has still not lost a match all season long, beat Missy Ellis 6-2. Valdez also finished the EYL unbeaten in doubles play.

“I think it was a little bit of a letdown (by the Marauders) and it’s happened to us too when we lost to them a couple years ago,” Nielsen said. “You know you can’t win it anymore, so it’s not really exciting playing for second place. I think that once we got ahead in the match, maybe a little air went out of their sails a little bit.”

At Wednesday night's EYL seeding meeting for this weekend's EYL Tournament, several city schools will be in prime position to advance to the Valley Individual Tournament.

As expected, Martinez earned the No. 1 singles seed with Granite Hills' Sarah Herrera getting the No. 2, Tulare Western's Brooke Hillman the 3 and senior Grizzly Caitlin Jetter the 4. 

In doubles, Gibson and Scudder got the top seed. Gibson won the 2008 tournament with Lane Johnson. 

Tulare Union's team that caused so many problems for the Porterville squads, Brittany York and Jenna Niggli, are the No. 2 seed with Regina Mecenario and Jenny Maun (Delano) getting the No. 3 seed.

Granite's off-and-on duo of Bailey Ward and Mai Lor were seeded fourth.

Monache also entered Camat in singles with Kellie Agtarap-Allie Mejia and Karli Miller-Mercedes Alcantar also getting the nod to compete in postseason play.

Clem and Nettie Roman will play singles for Porterville with Ervin-Valdez filling out the final Panther spot.

Action starts at 4 p.m. at Tulare Western High School (singles) and Tulare Union High (doubles). Saturday's semifinal and final rounds will begin at 9 a.m. at Western.

The top two seeds get byes and the top four finishers advance to October 31's Valley tournament.