Panther tennis gets first Valley title

No. 2 Tehachapi’s top doubles team wouldn’t go away.

Abby Cory and Hannah Trott had taken three straight games from Shiloah Gibson and Alisia Scudder and were set to spark a last-ditch Warrior comeback.

But then a roar erupted from an adjacent court.

Porterville sophomore Quin Johnson landed a shot to win the third doubles match, score that elusive fifth point and sink Tehachapi’s bid for a repeat Division III title.

Oh yeah, and it secured the Porterville girls’ tennis program’s first Valley championship.

Coach Kurt Nielsen threw up his arms and screamed, ‘Porterville High!’ and the 50-plus students, parents and faculty in attendance applauded. Gibson and Scudder embraced, the No. 2 team, seniors Alecia Gonzales and Nancy Valdez, who were also locked in a tight match, followed suit.

Both Panther pairs, with the match now secured, were able to relax and each won their respective matches to give top-seeded Porterville a 7-2 home victory in the D-III finals, Thursday.

“It’s so unbelievably amazing,” Gibson said. “To be a senior and to win it, that’s the highlight of my senior year.”

Nielsen will readily admit he’s had better teams in the past, but they weren’t able to put it all together like his 2009 squad did.

“We’ve got good athletes on this team, great competitors. It’s a fairytale ending,” he said. “I can’t help but think of Pat (McCusker) and his 38 years and all the tough teams he’s had and 11 years for me, we’ve had a lot of good teams. But finally when the stars aligned, I can’t think of a better term than it was our turn.”

Tehachapi (16-5) eliminated Porterville (21-3) on the same court in the Valley semis a year earlier, but was dealt a deathm blow of sorts when the Panthers took four of the six singles matches to take a commanding lead going into the doubles round.

The Panthers, led by Johnson and Nettie Roman’s 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 3, swept the doubles and, following Gibson and Scudder’s 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) No. 1 doubles victory, the remainder of the team mobbed the two in celebration on the No. 1 court. Soon after, principal Steve Graybehl handed the girls the Central Section Championship trophy.

“You’ve gotta want it to win it and we wanted it more!” the girls exclaimed to close their final breakdown of the season.

“To bring something back to Porterville High is certainly a huge thrill,” Nielsen said. “To finally have something to really showcase. For them to sweep in doubles is just unbelievable. I could’ve never seen a 7-2 win.”

Gonzales and Valdez, who ended their careers without losing a match together in their two varsity seasons, won the No. 2 match 6-4, 6-4.

Following Trott and Cory’s run, the two top teams locked up in a would-be classic tiebreaker (had the match not already been decide) but, following two Scudder front-court smashes and two Cory shots that fell out of bounds, the Gibson-Scudder duo won its third doubles match of the playoffs.

“Me and Alisia work together because she’s got my back if the ball goes back and I got hers,” Gibson said. “We work so well together, better than other people. We clicked.”

Gibson, limping after twisting her ankle early in the match, beat Trott 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1 singles, Larissa Clem lost 6-0, 6-0 to Cory at No. 2, Scudder beat Desiree Ortiz 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3, Gonzales downed Bailey Hutchinson 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4, No. 5 Nicole Ervin fell 6-4, 6-3 while Roman defeated Darian Grisso 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 to in the most dramatic match of the singles portion.

“One, three and four (in the ladder) were the same three that dominated on Tuesday,” Nielsen said. “See a pattern there? Nettie Roman lost to a tough player Tuesday, she wins 7-6 (in the first set) and instead of relax, what does she do? She plays the second set tougher. Isn’t that a sign of a Federer or Serena Williams, someone who’s mentally tough? They pour it on.”

Few thought these Panthers would be the ones to end the title drought, but Gibson saw signs that a day like this was in the cards as the year went on.

“At the beginning, we (thought), ‘No this isn’t gonna work.’ But as we progressed, we were like, ‘This team’s actually really good. We can so do this,”’ she said.