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Freshman Mandy Oliveros wasn’t sure she was going to play tennis at the high school level when she started at CAMS.
But Friday afternoon Oliveros was thankful she did after stamping her name in the Moore League record books as she became the second Rebel to win the singles title after defeating Wilson’s Vivian Hall 6-3, 6-0.
The last CAMS athlete to win the title was Jody Chang in 2019.
“I’m really glad that I decided to play,” Oliveros said. “It’s been a good experience. It’s been an exciting season.”
For Hall, it was her second straight season making the championship and although the season wasn’t able to come away with the title — she was thankful to be back in a position to try and come away with the league title.
“It’s definitely been a journey,” Hall said. “I think I’ve definitely grown so much since the last time I was in this tournament. Last year I was super nervous, just really doubting myself – not having that confidence, but over this past year I did a lot of work to bring my confidence back and really believe in myself.”
In the third-place match, Wilson’s Vanessa Holden (last year’s winner) defeated CAMS’ Sara Rodriguez 6-2, 6-4.
CAMs wasn’t done making history as the freshmen duo of Sara Rodriguez and Saya Nagae defeated Wilson’s Vanessa Holden and Irit Paiement 6-1, 6-3 to make it a sweep in both events for the Rebels.
“This season was really fun,” Rodriguez said. “I want to credit our teammates for making this a really fun experience. What helped us was that we have really good chemistry, we understood each other’s plays.”
That familiarity showed in the title match as the duo were in sync and communicating throughout the second set as Holden and Paiement worked to get back in the second set.
CAMS and Wilson are both expected to be in the playoffs when the brackets come out on Monday. The Rebels are currently ranked No. 1 in division 5 and the Bruins will likely be a lower seed in Division 2.
