ABILENE – The Pac-12 has the luxury of holding its annual conference tennis championships each April in Ojai, Calif., and after how the Wildcats have performed there the past three seasons they may want to permanently relocate the Southland Conference tournament to this forested valley tucked away in the Topatopa Mountains starting next spring.
The annual Ojai Valley Tournament with historic Libbey Park as its base of operations has been more than beneficial to the Wildcats during their NCAA DI transition phase. In 2015, ACU's women's team earned its first of three straight team trophies as then-sophomore
Erin Walker won the singles championship and the doubles crown with then-sophomore
Lucile Pothier.
The following spring, ACU men won its Ojai championship with
Henry Adams and
Jason Proctor topping their teammates
Josh Sheehy and
Nico Agritelley, 7-6, in the finals, while on the women's side Pothier won a second doubles title – this time with
Kaysie Hermsdorf, 8-7, over Walker and
Whitney Williams.
This week, however, the Wildcats were at their very best as all eight student-athletes entered in the tournament battled their way into one of the four championship matches.
In the doubles finals, junior Pothier won her third consecutive championship with a different partner as she and classmate Williams topped Walker and freshman
Sarah Eleanor Adams, 6-4, 6-2. The French native additionally won her first singles title, topping Williams, 6-1, 6-2.
The fourth-seeded Williams reached the finals after eliminating top-seeded Caroline Casper, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, while No. 3 Pothier defeated No. 2 Walker in the second semifinal, 6-2, 6-1.
On the men's side, sophomore Joshua Sheehy won his first Ojai championship and it came against his sophomore brother and fourth-seeded Jonathan by a score of 7-5, 6-2. The elder Sheehy nearly duplicated Pothier's accomplishment of winning both singles and doubles championships, but he and his brother were edged in a three-set classic by teammates Adams and Agritelley, 4-6; 7-6; 13-11.
The all-Wildcat championship came about after the third-seeded Sheehy brothers doubled up top-seeded Robert Dula and Scott Paz of Eastern Washington, 6-3, 6-3. The second-seeded Adams and Agritelley, meanwhile, defeated fourth-seeded EWU duo Luke Nees and Flavien Raveau, 6-3, 6-0.
ACU's men's and women's teams played a combined 40 matches throughout Ventura County, Calif., this weekend and won 39 times for a whopping .975 winning percentage.
Head coach
Hutton Jones said this year's teams were the best he's brought to Ojai, and that Sunday's environment at Libbey Park with the four Wildcat finals was like a dream come true.
"This whole day, this entire weekend has had the feel of a national event and our own versions of the Bryan brothers (Bob and Mike) and the Williams sisters (Serena and Venus) got to play each other in the finals," said the 21-year head coach. "I'm really proud – our team's showed their strengths – and since this is the last year we were able to come here, it was neat to see everyone hitting on all cylinders."
Finals
(2) Joshua Sheehy d. (4)
Jonathan Sheehy - 7-5; 6-2
Semifinals
(2) Joshua Sheehy d.
Nico Agritelley - 6-4; 6-3
(4)
Jonathan Sheehy d. (1) Robert Dula - 6-1; 6-3
Quarterfinals
(2) Joshua Sheehy d. (6) Scott Paz - 6-2; 6-2
Nico Agritelley d. Flavien Raveau - 6-1; 6-3
(4)
Jonathan Sheehy d. Philip Westwood - 6-0; 6-0
Round of 16
(2) Joshua Sheehy d. Jake Haffner - 6-1; 6-1
Nico Agritelley d. Austin Wong - 6-1; 6-0
(4)
Jonathan Sheehy d. Luke Ness - 6-0; 6-0
Round of 32
Nico Agritelley d. Adrien Varenne - 6-2; 6-1
(4)
Jonathan Sheehy d. Gabriel Barazetti - 6-0; 6-0
(5) Kyle Rae d.
Henry Adams - 4-6; 6-3; 6-3
Finals
(2) Adams/Agritelley d. (3) Sheehy/Sheehy - 4-6; 7-6; 13-11
Semifinals
(2) Adams/Agritelley d. (4) Ness/Raveau - 6-3; 6-0
(3) Sheehy/Sheehy d. (1) Dula/Paz - 6-3; 6-3
Quarterfinals
(2) Adams/Agritelley d. Lee/Nightingale - 6-4; 6-3
(3) Sheehy/Sheehy d. Joens/Whalen - 6-3; 6-2
Round of 16
(2) Adams/Agritelley d. Legardy/Sulahian - 6-0; 6-2
(3) Sheehy/Sheehy d. Bami/Barazetti - 6-1; 6-2
Finals
(3)
Lucile Pothier d. (4)
Whitney Williams - 6-1; 6-2
Semifinals
(3)
Lucile Pothier d. (2)
Erin Walker - 6-2; 6-1
(4)
Whitney Williams d. (1) Caroline Casper - 6-7(5); 6-4; 6-4
Quarterfinals
(2)
Erin Walker d. (7) Samantha Mae Coyiuto - 6-2; 6-2
(3)
Lucile Pothier d. (6) Arianna Chen - 6-0; 6-2
(4)
Whitney Williams d. (5) Sarah Adams - 6-4; 6-4
Round of 16
(2)
Erin Walker d. Djurdijina Vorhovac - 6-0; 7-5
(3)
Lucile Pothier d. Lauren Lee - 6-0; 6-0
(5) Sarah Adams d. Emily Chen - 6-1; 6-2
(4)
Whitney Williams d. Angelica Zhou - 6-3; 6-1
Round of 32
(2)
Erin Walker d. Kelsey Post - 6-0; 6-0
(3)
Lucile Pothier d. Nicole Neumann - 6-1; 6-0
(5) Sarah Adams d. Brooke Sanford - 6-1; 6-0
(4)
Whitney Williams d. Danielle Aparicio - 6-0; 6-1
Finals
(1) Pothier/Williams d. (2) Adams/Walker - 6-4; 6-2
Semifinals
(2) Adams/Walker d. (3) Casper/Chen - 6-2; 6-4
(1) Pothier/Williams d. (4) Chen/Kim - 6-2; 6-4
Quarterfinals
(2) Adams/Walker d. Chen/Zhou - 7-5; 6-4
(1) Pothier/Williams d. Coyiuto/Jiang - 6-0; 6-1
Round of 16
(2) Adams/Walker d. Lee/Sanford - 6-1; 6-0
(1) Pothier/Williams d. Heer/Post - 6-1; 6-0
