Facing their first loss this season to community college competition, the Cerritos College women's tennis team won five of six singles matches to pull out a 5-4 South Coast Conference win over El Camino College on Thursday. The Falcons (18-1, 10-0), ranked #1 in Southern California, will host Santa Monica College (1-9) in a non-conference match at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.

After getting swept in doubles play for the first time all season, the Falcons, still recovering from their trip to Fresno over the weekend, as well as injuries and illness, needed to win five of the six singles matches to avoid a rare loss. Wins by #5 Jovana Milosevic (High School of Business and Law, Serbia, Hillsborough, FL CC) and and #2 Taylor Heath (Cerritos HS) started the comeback. With only eight courts at El Camino, freshman Danielle Pastor (Bishop Montgomery HS) was the last match to start. But she quickly earned a 6-1, 6-1 win to get the team to within a victory.

But when sophomore Anastasia Khomyachenko (Sochi, Russia) lost her first match of the year. 3-6, 5-7, Cerritos needed wins in all of the remaining matches. Freshman Tiffany Sanchez (Long Beach Wilson HS), who took an injury timeout in doubles play, fought back to win in three sets at #3, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, which tied the match at 4-4. Freshman Valentina Polonyi (Altisa, Hungary) was able to fight back after losing the first set, 1-6 and came back to win the next two sets, 6-3, 6-2 to the team win. 

SINGLES

Rachael Eshillonu (ECC) def. Anastasia Khomyachenko (CERR), 6-3, 7-5
Taylor Heath (CERR) def. Violet Simpson (ECC), 6-3, 6-4
Tiffany Sanchez (CERR) def. Jade Shugars (ECC), 6-0, 4-6, 6-2
Valentina Polonyi (CERR) def. Natalie Juarez (ECC), 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
Jovana Milosevic (CERR) def. Natsuki Hoshiko (ECC), 6-1, 6-1
Danielle Pastor (CERR) def. Nicole Zwiren (ECC), 6-1, 6-1

DOUBLES

Rachael Eshillonu/Violet Simpson (ECC) def. Taylor Heath/Anastasia Khomyachenko (CERR), 8-4
Jade Shugars/Natsuki Hoshiko (ECC) def. Tiffany Sanchez/Valentina Polonyi (CERR), 8-5
Natalie Juarez/Nicole Zwiren (ECC) def. Jovana Milosevic/Danielle Pastor (CERR), 8-5