St. Joseph/s girls tennis team/s players figured they were in for a hard slog against Cabrillo Tuesday.

So they slogged through a brief workout Monday. &#8220We practiced in the rain,C Lauren Freitas said. &#8220And the thunder.C

The Knights/ hard work paid off. Freitas and her high school doubles partner of four years, Courtney Jaeckels, swept their three sets Tuesday. So did St. Joseph singles players Jenna Okerblom and Ane McPike as the Knights beat the Conquistadores 10-8 in a showdown on the St. Joseph courts for first place.

Sophia Eszes, at number one singles, gave the Knights their other point.

St. Joseph moved to 9-1 in the Los Padres League and 12-1 overall. The Knights swept their two season matches against Cabrillo (8-2, 8-4).

Both teams have four matches left. The Knights play at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Santa Ynez. The Pirates are tied with Cabrillo for second place. St. Joseph beat Santa Ynez in the first round. The Knights/ lone loss was to Morro Bay at St. Joseph two weeks ago.

Freitas and Jaeckels are the Knights/ top doubles team, and they helped their team along Tuesday with solid 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victories.

&#8220This is our last year (together as a doubles team), and we want to try as hard as we can,C Jaeckels said. &#8220We want to go out big.

&#8220We won two (of three) sets the first time we played them 7 we played pretty good then. But we played better today.C

Jaeckels said the biggest reason she and Freitas swept was, &#8220We were really aggressive. We both came up (to the net) whenever we could.C

&#8220They had talked about winning league,C first-year St. Joseph coach Ken Noe said. &#8220I told them that there was a big difference between talking about winning the league 7 there are a lot of good doubles teams in this league.

&#8220They took the initiative and stepped up their game.C

Okerblom, a junior, and McPike, a freshman, both scored impressive wins against Ellen Monkemeier and Lisa Schutz, Cabrillo/s top two singles players. Okerblom defeated Schutz 6-2 and Monkemeier 6-1. McPike defeated both 6-1.

Monkemeier and Schutz are two of the better singles players in a deep singles league. The matches involving Okerblom and McPike against those two figured to be pivotal ones Tuesday.

&#8220We did what we wanted to do in doubles 7 we went 6-3,C Cabrillo coach Dan Troup said. &#8220We figured we needed to win four points in singles, and we didn/t do it.C

Cabrillo/s doubles tandems of Elysha McLain and Madalyn Doudna, Lauren Vance and Heidi Havlicek, and Lyndsey Johnson and Ashley Brady won two points each. That wasn/t quite enough to offset the Knights/ strength in singles.

&#8220It was just a good, competitive match,C said Troup. &#8220Give St. Joseph all the credit. They were the tougher team today.C

Okerblom rebounded after being swept in the Knights/ match against Morro Bay.

Tuesday, &#8220I was just a lot more aggressive,C Okerblom said. &#8220I was coming (to the net) a lot.

&#8220She/s a good player, and I just tried to run her and get to the net,C Okerblom said of her match against Monkemeier. The strategy worked.

McPike said that instead of staying down after the defeat against Morro Bay, the Knights went the opposite direction mentally. They have won four straight since the loss.

&#8220Yeah, we were down a little bit,C after losing to Morro Bay, McPike said after hitting impressive groundstrokes throughout her sets Tuesday.

&#8220But we just started working harder. We practiced harder.C

During the first round of the match Tuesday, no one was exactly saying, &#8220This is just another match to me.C

Monkemeier, a senior, has played on the varsity all of her four seasons at Cabrillo. &#8220We went to the playoffs last year, and we had some big matches against Santa Ynez,C she said. &#8220But this is one of the biggest we/ve played in.C

&#8220It/s one of the most important we/ve played in,C since she/s been at St. Joseph, said Okerblom. Okerblom is a three-year varsity player.

McPike, who has said she always gets some butterflies before a match, said, &#8220I was more nervous,C before this one than usual.

She came through her pre-match jitters just fine.

Nipomo 17, Lompoc 1

At Nipomo, the strong Titans made quick work of the Braves winning all nine singles sets and eight of nine in doubles.

Only Kayla Cunningham/Janee Murray could win for Lompoc, that by 6-3.

Braves doubles players forced overtime in three sets, Jani Carmona/Crystal Hernandez doing it twice and Amanda Chastain/Maiyer Vang once before falling 7-5.

Elizabeth Will swept three sets for the Titans without losing a game.

Lauren Caron lost just three games as Nipomo squared its LPL record at 5-5.

Lompoc is now 1-9 in league, 2-12 overall. The Braves host Pioneer Valley Thursday.

Santa Ynez 15, Pioneer Valley 3

The Pirates (8-2, 11-4) took to the road and won a league match at Pioneer Valley without singles ace Subi Sundaram.

Siobhann Shinn swept 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 at number one singles for Santa Ynez. The Pirates/ doubles tandems of Kendal Ward and Chelsea Weatherbee, and Jessie Lenne and Devan Larsen also swept.

Caiti Dolores earned two singles points for the Panthers (0-10, 1-10).

Morro Bay 15, Santa Maria 3

The Pirates/ Chloe Redman and Christina Miller didn/t drop a game while sweeping three sets at the Minami Center at number one doubles.

Morro Bay singles ace Alisa Royer swept three sets and lost one game. The Pirates moved to 7-3 in LPL matches.

Grachel Luna and Crystal Rubio scored two doubles points for the Saints (2-8 LPL, 3-9 overall).

Sports writer Kenny Cress can be reached at 739-2237 or by e-mail at kcress@santamariatimes.com

October 19, 2005