Alameda Hornets Reach NCS Women's Tennis Individual Quarterfinals

November 18, 2024, Chabot College -- A remarkable Alameda women's tennis season came to an end on Monday with each of Alameda's entries in the singles and doubles of the NCS Individual Championships making the quarterfinal round. The Hornets, led by head coach Jeff Jue and assistant coaches Russell Yee and Mary Magellan, won their first WACC league championship this year.

Alice Chen, Alameda #1 singles, dispatched her first opponent, Bridgette Sieckert of Campolindo, 6-1 6-2. In Chen's close second match, she fought hard but lost to #2 seed Maya Peav of Dublin, 6-4 6-4. Alameda doubles duo, Juliana Johnson and Sophie Featherstone, downed Allison Tam/Erica Ho of Heritage 6-1 6-0 in the first round.

Johnson and Featherstone then met the #4 seed, Jordan Marotto and Ella Povio of MCAL champions Redwood, in the quarterfinals. It was a match of streaks, with the Redwood pair winning the last 4 games of the first set after Alameda had led 3-2, for 6-3. The second set saw Marotto and Povio run out to a 5-2 lead; Johnson and Featherstone, playing loose, then clawed their way back to 5-5. Along the way they faced 4 match points: down 40-0 on Marotto's serve, they managed to win four straight points to even the set at 5. After an exchange of breaks, the set would be decided by a tiebreaker. Down 2-6 in the breaker, Johnson rifled a down-the-line forehand winner past Marotto at the net to stave off match point #5. However, the Redwood team hung on and won the next point to prevail 7-3 in the set decider and take the match.