The 2018 Valley Oak League Championship Tennis Tournaments were held this past week. On Tuesday, Oct. 23 the Oakdale Lady Mustang singles tennis players headed to Sierra High School in Manteca. In the first round Lijian Bacud lost to Sierra’s top player 3-8 for a first round exit. Sierra continued to get the better of Oakdale when Tayla Barry fell to the host team 0-8 in her second round match, after receiving a first round bye.

Earning a win for Oakdale was Kendra Branch as she blanked her Weston Ranch opponent 8-0. However, she would lose in the next round 4-8, ending Oakdale’s singles season.

Two days later Oakdale returned to Sierra High School for the doubles tournament. Oakdale took three teams to the tournament and all three earned first round byes. In the second round Kimball’s number one duo took out Shannen Yang and Aylossa Jingco. Kendra Branch and McKenzie Brown earned an 8-3 win over Manteca’s third ranked team to advance to the quarterfinals. Also making a quarterfinals appearance was the team of Tayla Barry and Lijian Bacud as they doubled up on Central Catholic 8-4.

“Having two teams in the quarterfinals made it a pretty good day,” said head coach Grant Miller.

Barry and Bacud’s day came to a close when they lost 3-6, 2-6 to Manteca’s number one team. Branch and Brown also suffered a disappointing loss when they fell 4-6, 6-3, 4-6; the final set was tied at four before dropping two points.

“I was extremely proud of those girls. The girls themselves were disappointed; but we came in as the number five team in Valley Oak League and almost pulled off some upsets,” said Miller.