Panthers win tuneup over Grizzlies

The Porterville Panthers had one final obstacle in their path toward a showdown of unbeatens with Monache, Monday: the surprising Granite Hills Grizzlies.

Though the Grizzlies (2-3-1) continued their upstart campaign, they weren’t quite ready to topple the Panthers.

Porterville (5-0), behind its two top singles players’ (No. 1 Lane Johnson and No. 2 Shiloah Gibson) near-flawless outings, won Wednesday’s home match 13-5.

“They were definitely dominant,” Granite Hills coach Randy Smee said of Johnson and Gibson. “We had a lot of deuces that we lost but they were awesome today. It’s going to be interesting to see how they stand up against Monache.”

Johnson and Gibson both won each of their matches, which amounted to four wins for the Panthers, including a shutout victory over Granite’s top two singles players, Caitlin Jetter and Sarah Herrera in their doubles encounter.

Porterville coach Kurt Nielson thinks the quick victory may have stemmed from a previous defeat.

“They beat us in our scrimmage in August,” Nielson said. “The same two girls beat us, so there was definitely a revenge factor.”

Granite Hills’ top doubles duo of Bailey Ward and Mai Lor had possibly their best day as varsity performers, as they topped each of Porterville’s top doubles teams (6-1, 6-1). 

“That Granite Hills (doubles) team is athletic,” Nielson said. “They’re quicker, they’re a little faster and they’re sort of crafty. I don’t think we played our best, but I always tell the girls ‘you are what your score is.’ You win 6-1, that’s how good you are. They just definitely outplayed us.”

The Ward-Lor team improved to 11-1 in EYL play. Lor won her second-round, while Porterville’s Jill Delperdang beat Ward 6-3, in round three.

Herrera, who was playing No. 2 singles in Linda Ruiz-Velasco’s absence, notched a first-round singles win.

Granite was forced to play without its No. 2 or 5 players due to school absences. That being the case, Smee was impressed with his team’s ability to win some sets.

“We measure by what we did last year and I thought that we’d be lucky to get a point or two,” Smee said. “We find out that we’re down (two girls) and we’re still matching what we did last year, so I feel very good about the prospects of the near future.”