Bakersfield College’s women’s team ended up tying for third place in their conference this season after losing to Santa Barbara City College and defeating Glendale Community College last week.
Santa Barbara almost entirely defeated BC in the penultimate game of the season on April 5, with BC losing 8-1. The only victory BC took was the singles one match, played by Denisa Hromadkova of BC and Elizabeth Sauer of Santa Barbara. Hromadkova won the match 6-1, 6-2.
The first match BC played against Santa Barbara earlier in the season, Sauer defeated Hromadkova for the first time, taking away Hromadkova’s perfect record.
“It felt good,” Hromadkova said about defeating Sauer. “I played much better this time.”
“We had other good matches, but they won,” Coach Gene Lundquist said about the Santa Barbara match.
BC ended the season with the match against Glendale on April 7, defeating them 5-4. However, the Glendale team had to default twice due to injuries.
Glendale’s number six singles player had to retire against Jaylene Chan of BC due to injury, and the last match of the game wasn’t played because Phoebe Minette of Glendale sustained an injury during her match against Kassandra Beadle of BC.
Hromadkova won her singles match in two sets, coming from behind each time. She won the first set 7-6 after winning the tiebreak 6-2, and the second set 7-5. This made Hromadkova’s record in the conference 8-2 and 11-2 overall.
This record seeded her as the number two player in the championship tournament for the conference.
Lundquist had said the match against Glendale really came down to the last singles match they played, which was between Beadle and Minette.
“Kassie got beat the first set 6-2, and it wasn’t looking good,” said Lundquist. “Then in the middle of the second set she turned it around, got back to a tiebreak and won that, and then defeated Minette 6-1 in the third [set]. That got us to four all.”
However, BC didn’t even get a chance to play their last match against Glendale. The last match was supposed to be a doubles match, but the Glendale coach had to pull Minette out of the last match, making BC’s fifth and final victory a default.
“You know, we don’t like to win that way, but it worked out,” said Lundquist.
BC ended their season tied for third place with Ventura College, but BC beat Ventura in their last game with them.
“So we consider that we’re third, behind Santa Barbara and Santa Monica,” said Lundquist.
With the season over, the team is practicing for the conference championships where players will compete for individual awards. BC will bring eight players to the championships, including the number two seed Hromadkova. These eight players will play eight singles matches and four doubles matches at the championships, which will be held April 15 and 16. If any members enter the quarterfinals of the championships, they will head to the regional championship on May 4.
Lundquist is looking forward to next season, saying they have a lot of good players already signed up, including four returning players: Hromadkova, Janelle Fivecoat, Beadle, and Sarah Smith.