The women's tennis featured its No. 1 and No. 2 players Brittany Bass and Melissa Boyer at the Ojai Invitational over the weekend and they made it to the semi-finals as a doubles tandem.

Bass (front row, far right) and Boyer (back row, far left) lost to No. 2 seeded Jacque Rouquet and Marina Sales of College of the Desert 6-1, 6-4.

Boyer, as a singles player, was knocked out in the round of 32 to a Grossmont College player and Bass was knocked out in the round of 16 to a Cerritos College player.

As the only two lady Pirates to play in the SoCal Regionals on Thursday, Bass and Boyer will try to meet each other in the finals at Cypress College. [Click here to read about how they got to the SoCal Regionals] [Click here to read the article on men's and women's postseason]

Good luck ladies.

[Photo courtesy of Orange Coast College]

Today is a big day for three OCC athletics programs.

The Coast track and field team has the Orange Empire Conference Prelims today at noon.




The men's and women's swimming teams are on its second day of the OEC Championships at Golden West College. The meets start from 9:30 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m.


OCC tennis teams are also on its second day of the OEC Tournament - the men's at Fullerton College and the women's at Riverside Community College.



Good luck to all the OCC sports teams. I can't wait to write about post-season victories.

[Track and field photos by Tony Lee]
[Swimming photo by Melissa Lee]
[Tennis photo by Peter Bicknell]

I talked to Orange Coast College's women’s head coach Janice Maran and men’s head coach Chris Ketcham today and they both talked about the players’ health and stamina.

The lady Pirates played without the team’s No. 1 player Brittany Bass and No. 3 player Kalin Eshelman (this week's Pirate of the Week) Thursday due to injuries. Maran tentatively said both players may return next week.

Maran added this match was important for the lady Pirates because it showed the women that every point, game and match is crucial and important.

Ketcham said he was glad the men’s matches ended early because he wanted his players fresh for Friday’s home match against Mt. San Jacinto College.

He also seemed to worry about the injury-bug on the women’s team carrying over to his squad.

All the teams at OCC are in the middle of its season. I hope, knock-on-wood, all the teams will stay healthy for the rest of the year.

The Orange Coast College men's and women's tennis team will play a non-conference match against visiting Glendale Community College of Arizona today at home.

Glendale's head men's and women's tennis coach Chris Tolson said this is his first time at Coast and, "It's been a pretty good experience so far."

"We went ahead and scheduled a few matches here in California over our spring break," Tolson said. "We're just trying to (play in) better weather and trying to get as much tennis in a possible."

Glendale is also schedule to play against Orange Empire Conference rivals Cypress College, Glendale Community College, Whittier College and Occidental College in its trip to Southern California.

So far, the lady Pirates are down 1-2 in doubles.

OCC's Melissa Boyer and Hannah Mancino lost 9-7 to Glendale's Anela Pehlic and Katie Lively. OCC's Heather Wong and Nicole Naughton won 8-5 against Glendale's Ashley Kildoo and Julie Kerr. The third match was not played because OCC only has five active players today.

The Pirates, however, won all three of its doubles matches against Glendale.

OCC's Laurent Minguez and Felix Demiro beat Glendale's Stephen Elliot and George Laura 8-0. OCC's Brad Fisher and Yannick Lepage won 8-1 against Justin Rygil and Matt Fesko. OCC's Kevin Saenz and Marc Cesar beat Miguel Zepeda and Joe Garcia 8-1 also.

The Pirate men are looking strong but let's see if the shorthanded lady Pirates can come through with a victory.