Marissa Tate lone senior honored for four years of play
Kern Valley’s tennis team had a key match up with Desert in hopes of tying up the HDL standings. Unfortunately, they could not handle the Lady Scorpions who defeated them 8-1 to secure the top spot. They recovered to topple Bishop as they honored the lone senior on the squad.
They made the trip to Desert on Oct. 15. It was a big matchup that quite didn’t go the way Kern Valley needed it to go. The Lady Scorpions swept the doubles action and won five of the six singles match ups. Summer Santos picked up the only team point for Kern Valley on the day. She won her singles set by scores of 7-5 and 6-3.
Dropping their singles sets were Marissa Tate by identical 2-6 scores. Kyra Flint was forced to concede due to illness. This gave Desert the team point. Abby Phillips lost 0-6 and 2-6, while Karsyn Liske won the first set 6-4, but lost in the second 1-6. Sent to the tiebreaker, Philips lost 3-10. Elizabeth Davis played the marathon match. The first set went to a tiebreaker. The score was 6-7 (tiebreak was 5-7). She captured the second set 6-3, then fell in the tiebreaker 4-10.
Turning to doubles, the team of Flint and Phillips lost 4-6 and 3-6. Tate and Davis dropped their sets 3-6 and 4-6, while the team of Kylie Griswold and Taylor Beam fell 1-6 and 2-6. This closed out the team scoring giving the Lady Scorpions the match win and the top spot alone in the HDL standings.
Two days later the Lady Broncs were at home to face the team from Bishop. Kern Valley doubled up on the Lady Broncos taking the match 6-3. They would win five of the six singles matches and one doubles match to earn the victory.
Tate won her singles match up 7-5 and 6-4. Flint bounced back to earn a team point by identical 6-3 scores. Phillips took care of her opponent 6-4 and 6-2, while Liske won 6-2 and 6-1. Davis won 6-4 and 6-3 to give Kern Valley their fifth team point in singles. Santos was the lone Lady Broncs athlete to drop her singles play. She would fall 2-6 and 3-6.
The Kern Valley team of Flint and Phillips picked up the only doubles win. They enjoyed the 6-3 and 6-1 win. Tate and Davis fell 6-2, 1-6 and dropped the tiebreaker 7-10. Griswold and Beam lost 1-6 and 3-6 to close out the match.
This was the last regular season match for the Lady Broncs. They finished the season with a 5-5 overall record and were 4-2 in HDL action. Six Kern Valley players will compete in the HDL Finals in Bishop on Thursday. The matches will begin at 11 a.m.
Kern Valley head coach Sabine Mixon said, “At the Bishop match we were privileged to honor our lone senior, Marissa Tate in recognizing her four-year tenure on the Kern Valey courts. Her leadership and influence will be missed.” Talking about the HDL finals, Mixon said, “The athletes competing in singles will be No. 1 Marissa Tate, and No. 4 Karsyn Liske, while Kyra Flint and Abby Phillips stay paired as the No. 1 doubles team. Davis and Santos will pair up to compete as the No. 2 doubles team.”
