COD Women’s Tennis sends 2 on to PCAC Tourney, Stepien claims #1 seed & MVP award

COD (7-7) finished off the PCAC schedule tied for third, while the team did not qualify for the SoCal Regional playoffs, two players made it to the Conference Tournament and one player is the top seed. 

Individual and doubles Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) titles will be decided over a three-day period beginning on Thursday, April 12th at Southwestern College in Chula Vista.

Freshman Claudia Stepien (Palm Desert H.S.) leads the way for the Roadrunners and the Conference as the top seeded individual player. She was also a unanomous selection by the Conference Women's Tennis coaches for the pretegious PCAC Outstanding Player of the Year award. 

There will be a first for Stepien at the Conference Tournament, as she is paired with teammate, freshman Ana Laura Ochoa-Castillo (Albuquerque (NM) Atrisco Heritage Academy) in the doubles portion of the event.

Stepien had been paired with freshman Andrea Rapan (Thermal Coachella Valley) the entire season, but Ochoa-Castillo was the only teammate available to travel to the Conference Tournament.

Stepien said about receiving the number one seed heading into the Conference Tournament, "It's really exciting honestly, it's just nice to see that my hard work pays off on the court here and I'm excited for the competition, and see how it goes."

Commenting on the 2018 season, Stepien observed, "I think the season went really well, I grew super close with my team and (head coach) Morgan (McIntosh) is a great coach, so it was really fun for me and I enjoyed it a lot."

Sharing her thoughts on the potential for a high seed at the CCCAA State Tournament at Ojai, Stepien said, "I'm pretty psyched about that, I mean that's pretty cool, knowing that it's going to be all the colleges, not only from our Conference, and I'm just really excited to see what I can do out there and see how my competition matches with the other girls."

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For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.