Huang reaches finals at T-CALs; Marquez, Wilson team up for
third after team wins share of title
HOLLISTER – There were no individual league titles for the Lady Mustang participants at Thursday’s second day of the T-CAL Finals in Hollister – but a share of the league crown was more than enough to satisfy their palettes.
“The team was so excited and happy about being co-league champions,” said senior Mindy Marquez, who teamed up with senior Catherine Wilson in the doubles field. “We’re glad we got this far. We had a really good coach to guide us through.”
Marquez and Wilson – who played singles all season long – decided to join forces in the T-CALs and reached the semifinals before getting eliminated by Notre Dame’s undefeated duo of Meryl DeYoung and Jessica Whitaker. The garlic tandem pushed the top seeds to a third set for the first time this season, eventually falling 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.
“They played really well together. Experience paid off for Notre Dame. They were a team that played 15 matches together,” head coach Jennifer Yoder said. “I think they did very well against them. To lose to the No. 1 seed, you can’t be upset about that. They just played really well.”
The freshly-made doubles team won two matches on Wednesday at North Salinas High to make the second day at Ridgemark in Hollister.
“We meshed really well. We did pretty good. We took third place,” said Marquez, who plans on attending UC-Santa Barbara or Cal Poly next year. “We worked really hard. We did really good together. We’re just all happy we came this far.”
Senior Valerie Huang made a run into the singles championship match by winning two matches on Wednesday and then downing Live Oak’s Malerie Stevenson in the semifinals, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. But Huang fell in the championship match to Notre Dame’s Stacy Flemming, 4-6, 4-6.
“I was very happy because last year we had nothing. This year to be No. 2 was really great,” said Huang, who hopes to attend either UC-Berkeley or UC-Davis next year. “I think we accomplished so much this season from last year.”
The Lady Mustangs finished 9-1 this season in a tie for first place with Notre Dame – which beat them in an elimination match on Tuesday in Salinas to take the only CCS spot from T-CAL.
