Women's Tennis: Robbins, Diaz lead list of Roadrunners headed to state

Rio Hondo College's top two singles players as well as all three of its doubles teams have qualified for the upcoming 2017 California Community College Tennis State Championship that is set to take place on April 29-30 at the Ojai Tennis Club.

Sophomores Nicole Robbins (No. 1) and Jessica Diaz (No. 2) will lead the Roadrunners at the state tournament by representing the college as individuals and will also team up to compete in doubles action. Robbins will be making her second consecutive appearance at the state championships after qualifying last year as a freshman.

At last week's South Coast Conference Championships, Robbins won a pair of matches before falling 6-1, 6-2 to Diviana Bravo of Cerritos College in the women's individual semifinals. Diaz was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over El Camino College's Natsuki Hoshiko before suffering a loss in the quarterfinals to eventual conference champion Petra Such of Cerritos.

In the doubles tourney, Robbins and Diaz picked up a 9-7 win against the team of Hoshiko and Sandy Mejia of El Camino before dropping their semifinal match.

Also making the trip north to the Ojai Valley will be the freshmen doubles team of Jessica Esquivel and Ruth Arciniega as well as the duo of freshmen Erika Garfas and Lina Kazarova.

Rio Hondo closed out the regular season with a 5-10 overall record and went 2-2 in limited South Coast Conference play under head coach Karen Unger.