Central Valley's and Ceres High's varsity girls tennis teams faced off for the 19th time this past week.

The Hawks improved their all-time record versus the crosstown-rival Bulldogs to 4-15 with a 7-2 home victory on Sept. 22.

"The score doesn't indicate how tough it was," Central Valley head coach Mike Rodriguez said. "All of the matches were competitive. It could have been 5-4. Two of the matches went three sets."

The first-place Hawks have won 15 of their last 17 Western Athletic Conference matches dating back to the 2014 season.

"I'm not really surprised," said Teresa Diaz, a third-year player competing at No. 1 singles for Central Valley. "We had a really good team last year. We have a lot of experience. We've been playing since our freshmen and sophomore years. We have a great coach. We practice hard. We take everything serious. We want to take league. I think we can."

The Hawks (5-0) won all six singles and one of three doubles matches against the Bulldogs (2-3).

"I expected it to be a little more challenging," Diaz said.

Diaz defeated Andria Esho 6-0, 6-0 in No. 1 singles play.

Jadah Jackson defeated Stephanie Garcia 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 6-1 in No. 2 singles play.

Bryana Lopez defeated Chelsea Heras 6-7 (16-18), 6-3, 6-1 in No. 3 singles play.

Celest Lepe defeated Alicia Villegas 6-1, 6-1 in No. 4 singles play.

Chelsea Flores defeated Aleena Ahmed 6-2, 6-1 in No. 5 singles play.

Claudia Martinez defeated Azia Brewster 6-1, 6-2 in No. 6 singles play.

Vanessa Monroy and Amy Nguyen defeated Sabrina Yang and Shania Evans 6-0, 6-1 in No. 1 doubles play.

Trinity Avila and Maria Rojas lost 6-3, 6-3 to Bella Rosas and Sarah Cuevas in No. 2 doubles play.

Nicole Munoz and Aileen Brambila lost 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to Camille Vega and Vivian Moreno in No. 3 doubles play.

Ceres High had to shuffle its lineup as Dominique Koeurn (No. 1 singles) and Jalani Blankenship (No. 5 singles) did not play. Koeurn attended driving school, while Blankenship was out sick.

"I don't think it had any impact," Bulldogs head coach Bryan Harden said. "No excuses. They took it to us. The girls are trying hard for me. We're just not playing smart enough. We have to get mentally tougher."

Central Valley has won its last four meetings against Ceres High.

The Hawks beat the Bulldogs twice by identical 5-4 scores this past season.

Hawks 7, Tigers 2
Central Valley topped host Patterson 7-2 on Thursday.

Jackson defeated Kitzia Gonzales 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4 in No. 2 singles play.

Lepe defeated Rebecca Miranda 6-0, 6-0 in No. 4 singles play.

Flores defeated Valentina Delgado 6-3, 6-1 in No. 5 singles play.

Nguyen defeated Clara Perez 6-0, 6-4 in No. 6 singles play.

Monroy and Munoz defeated Eze Ogbuli and Breanna Hernandez 6-3, 6-4 in No. 1 doubles play.

Avila and Rojas defeated Lupe Valencia and Marissa Tellas 6-3, 6-3 in No. 2 doubles play.

Adriana Escobedo and Stephanie Lopez defeated Manpreet Kaur and Sarai Perez 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 in No. 3 doubles play.

Diaz lost 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) to Catalina Borges in No. 1 singles play.

Bryana Lopez lost 6-3, 7-5 to Huma Aziz in No. 3 singles play.

Central Valley qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs for the first time in school history and posted a 10-2 record on its way to a second-place finish league play a year ago.

Los Banos won the WAC title with a perfect 12-0 mark.

"It feels good to be a part of a winning team," Diaz said. "Even if we lose, we get back up and try harder."