Lancaster clinches first girls tennis title

LANCASTER — The Lancaster girls tennis team clinched its first Golden League title in school history with a 16-2 victory over Eastside on Tuesday at Antelope Valley College.

The Eagles (13-0 GL) have a chance to win the title with an undefeated record when they take on Quartz Hill (11-2) on Thursday. Lancaster defeated Quartz Hill for the first time in school history, 117, earlier this season.

Eastside was missing a third singles player, so Lancaster’s Cleo Wang, Genesis Vasquez and Serena Borruel were each awarded a default victory.

Wang, the newly crowned Golden League singles champion, won her other two sets by 6-0 scores, while Vasquez won her two sets 6-1, 6-0.

Lancaster’s Kaelin Vasquez, who took second in Golden League doubles with teammate Belen Rodriguez, teamed up with Ashley Kwak for a 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 sweep at No. 1 doubles. Rodriguez injured her knee during Saturday’s Golden League tournament.

Amy Park and Sara Stringfield posted a 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 sweep at No. 2 doubles for the Eagles, while No. 3 Lucy Chaney and Jacky Obregon won 6-4, 6-0, 6-1.

Eastside’s No. 1 singles player Aimee won a 6-3 set, while No. 2 Cassidy picked up a 6-4 victory.

The Lions play at Antelope Valley to close out the season on Thursday.

Girls Volleyball Taft 3, California City 0

TAFT — The California City girls volleyball team’s comeback season came to a close on Tuesday in the first round of the CIF-Central Section Division 5 playoffs at Taft High School.

The Ravens lost to Taft 25-16, 27-25, 25-16.

Cal City led the entire second set, leading by as much as 23-18 before Taft fought its way back into the set and took it.

“We just didn’t have enough juice to come back from that,” Cal City coach Shane Moore said.

The Ravens struggled with outside hitting this season and it was an issue again on Tuesday. Moore said the team did many things right, just couldn’t get away from errors.

Middle hitter Ceci Foster led Cal City with 10 kills followed by eight kills from fellow middle Moon Boyd. Setter Makayla Haggins contributed 21 assists and libero Marai Guinyard added 16 digs and successfully received 25 serves in the match.

The Ravens finished the season with a 17-16 record, much improved from their 4-18 record last season.

“Last year, we didn’t know how to win period,” Moore said. “This year, we didn’t know how to win the big ones.

“Their progress, going from four wins to 17 wins in one season, was pretty impressive.”

Cal City is losing just one senior to graduation, outside hitter Jasmine Haggins. The rest of the roster is junior-heavy with two sophomores and two freshmen.

Taft (19-12-1) moves on to face No. 2 seed Farmersville, which defeated No. 15 seed Liberty in five sets, 13-25, 25-11, 2519, 20-25, 15-8.