Central Valley High School's varsity girls tennis team put up fight while losing 6-3 to Los Banos on Sept. 29 in Ceres.
The Hawks needed to win the rematch this past week to claim a share of the Western Athletic Conference title.
The tradition-rich Tigers coasted to a 9-0 home win over the short-handed Hawks on Thursday.
"I don't think they've lost a league match in six years," Central Valley head coach Mike Rodriguez said. "They got good athletes. They got a good coach. They're definitely the program to beat every year."
Central Valley (10-2) placed second behind Los Banos (12-0) in the Western Athletic Conference standings for the second year in a row.
The Hawks also won 10 of 12 league matches a season ago.
"It's just nice to get back to the playoffs for the second straight year," Rodriguez said. "It's great for the program. It's great for the school. It just shows hard work and dedication pay off. I'm proud of the girls. Not too many programs can say they had a span where they went 20-4 over two years."
Central Valley's Breana Lopez (No. 3 singles), Celest Lepe (No. 4 singles) and Claudia Martinez (No. 6 singles) did not compete against Los Banos last week.
Martinez was out of town.
Lopez and Lepe were sidelined for personal reasons.
"I definitely thought if we were at full-strength, we would have had a shot at winning at least a share of a league title," Rodriguez said. "We played them tough last time."
Los Banos swept all six singles and three doubles matches during the rematch.
Teresa Diaz lost 6-0, 6-1 to Shirley Liu in No. 1 singles play.
Jadah Jackson lost 6-2, 6-3 to Taylor Torongo in No. 2 singles play.
Chelsea Flores lost 6-0, 6-1 to Melanie Silva in No. 3 singles play.
Amy Nguyen lost 6-0, 6-1 to Kylee Cardoza in No. 4 singles play.
Vanessa Monroy lost 6-2, 6-3 to Adri Moreno in No. 5 singles play.
Nicole Munoz lost 6-2, 6-0 to Kiara Azevedo in No. 6 singles play.
Maria Rojas and Lupita Becerra lost 6-1, 6-2 to Emma Little and Lia Palazzo in No. 1 doubles play.
Brenda Diaz and Trinity Avila lost 6-4, 6-0 to Mariah Gomes and Christina Espana in No. 2 doubles play.
Adriana Escobedo and Pamela Martinez lost 6-2, 6-0 to Brooklyn Garcia and Haley Ballez in No. 3 doubles play.
Central Valley will face second-place Manteca of the Valley Oak League in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-III playoffs on Nov. 3.
Manteca lost twice to 2014 section-champion Central Catholic in VOL play this season.
"I was a little surprised," Rodriguez said. "I guess they thought Central Catholic was better than Los Banos so the VOL got the higher seed instead of us. It's going to be a tough match. You got two teams that had two losses each all year. When we were in the VOL, they always had a good program. We'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting."
