Saddleback College sophomore Erina Hung captured the Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis singles title with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over top-seeded Brittany Bass of Orange Coast College. It was the second consecutive season that Hung has reached the conference singles final. Last year’s title match was rained out, but rain wouldn’t be a factor this season as the tournament was completed in warm and sunny conditions.
Hung was the No. 2 seed in the tournament and had to get past Orange Coast’s Brittnie Furuvald on Thursday in the singles semifinal, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, before facing Bass in today’s final. Twenty minutes after winning the singles title, Hung and Bass were squaring off again in the doubles semifinal. Bass and Furuvald got some revenge, defeating Hung and Andrea Warren 7-5, 3-6, 6-1. In the other semifinal, Riverside’s Caroline Houston and Jenny Vatelia ousted Kalin Eshelman and Evelyn Wallace of Orange Coast, 6-1, 6-1.
It would be a long day for Bass but it was worth the effort as the Orange Coast tandem (Bass and Furuvald) defeated Houston and Vatelia for the doubles title, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
All of the singles quarterfinalists earned all-Orange Empire Conference honors and will advance to the Southern California regional tournament May 1-3 in Santa Barbara. The doubles quarterfinalists each advance to the regional tournament, but only the doubles semifinalists earned all-conference recognition. Hung, Warren, and Rylee Stowell earned all-conference honors in singles for the Gauchos with Hung and Warren also earning all-conference honors in doubles.
The Saddleback women’s tennis team, which finished off the 2007 season as the state runners-up, started the 2008 season off with a convincing victory over visiting Palomar College, 9-0.
Erina Hung returns for her sophomore season as Saddleback’s top singles player and had little trouble winning her match. Rylee Stowell won at No. 2 singles while sophomores Andrea Warren and Summer Wallin won at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively.
Palomar had to forfeit the No. 6 singles match and the No. 3 doubles match because it couldn’t fill those slots.