New Champs Are Crowned In The SCCAL Girls Tennis Finals

The Santa Cruz Coast Athletics League girls tennis season came to a wrap on Wednesday afternoon and Caroline Casper of St. Francis High stayed on top of her game and undefeated after she beat Tatiana Podolsky of Santa Cruz High 6-1, 6-1 in the singles final at the Seascape Sports Club in Aptos.

Casper, who finished the season with a 15-0 record, handled her opponent on the court on Wednesday and was excited to win her match against Podolsky but did admit it wasn’t a simple task.

“I felt good when I won, I was happy,” she said. “I put in a ton of hard work for tennis and I think it showed today. But Tatiana played really well too and it wasn’t an easy victory, I’m proud of myself.”

The comeback kids Desi Rakela and Serena Strehlke of Scotts Valley managed to get by Sanika Kshirsagar and Kelly McMinn 7-5, 6-3 in their doubles final matchup. 

Their skills were brought to the test when they put themselves in a 5-2 hole during the first set. However, the two were brought back to life and the Scotts Valley tennis team came back to take five games in a row for the 7-5 set win. 

“Excited, we’re definitely excited,” said Strehlke about winning the SCCAL doubles championship on Wednesday. “We’re happy and glad we just won that. ‘Just always get it over the net’ was the main motto today.”

This was the first time that the pair had played in a doubles match all season long, but it was nothing new for Strehlke and Rakela to play together on the court as a team and knew what it took to come away on top on Wednesday.

“We work really well together so it was pretty easy to not get upset over one point and we got over things pretty quickly and just kept going,” said Strehlke.

“Motivation and confidence,” said Rakela. “We click, it’s like a key in a lock. We go together and we don’t get mad at each other, I think that’s what makes a good doubles team.”