Merced Union High School District

Rarely do you see tennis players call for line judges in high school. The players usually make their own calls on whether balls land in or out. During the Central California Conference singles championship match last week, El Capitan High sophomore Gabriela Garcia Del Castillo called for a line judge. She was playing her younger sister Lia Garcia Del Castillo.

 

“It wasn’t like I was making any bad calls,” Lia said. “So the match got even more competitive from there.” Instead of playing best-of-three sets, the sisters agreed to play the match as a tie-breaker up to eight points and Lia emerged with an 8-3 victory to win the CCC championship. 

 

“They wanted to beat each other, absolutely,” said El Capitan coach Jonathan McCorkell. “In practice, they get pretty intense, too. They called for line judges, and we're like there are no line judges in practice. They go at it every single time they play.”

 

That competitive fire has set the tone for the Gauchos this season as they went a perfect 10-0 en route to a CCC championship. El Capitan received the No. 1 seed in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs and improved to 21-1 on the season with a 9-0 victory over No. 8 Twelve Bridges on Monday. The Gauchos will host No. 4 River Valley on Monday in the semifinals at 2 p.m.

 

Meanwhile, the Del Castillo sisters will travel to Roseville on Thursday to play in the section singles tournament. McCorkell says having the two of them at the top of the ladder has made the Gauchos a special team. “We were very close to being a championship level team last year,” McCorkell said. “We kept coming up just short against Merced High, and then in the section semifinals against River Valley. We lost both of those matches five to four. We didn’t have someone like Lia at the top of our roster. Having Lia pushes everyone down one spot.”

 

Lia, a freshman playing No. 1 singles, has compiled a 15-1 record this season. Gabriela is also 15-1 and is now 31-2 in two years for the Gauchos. It’s not just the two sisters leading the way. Senior Sarah Conrad is 13-1 at No. 3 singles, Amberly Her is 10-1 at No. 4 singles, Mikayla Santiago is a combined 10-1 at No. 4 and 5 singles and Emma Weber is 13-1 combined at No. 5 and 6 singles.

 

Lia, Gabriela, Conrad, Her, Weber and Anisha Jain all picked up singles victories against Twelve Bridges. The Gauchos also swept the three doubles matches. 

 

Lia says her focus is on leading the team to their first section championship. “I know I’m probably not going to state by myself as an individual,” Lia said. “My goal is winning with my team in the playoffs, and trying to go to state with my team.”

 

The Del Castillo sisters both started playing tennis around the age of five and played until they were about 10. Lia’s focus turned to soccer and track and Gabriela loves track. However, both decided to pick up tennis again in high school and even though they may be competitive when they play against each other, they both say it’s been special playing on the same team.

 

“It's fun to have a sister to play with and who is also another competitive player too,” Gabriela said. “It's really fun to play against her. It also feels good to have two sisters playing together on a team that won the league title. It’s been a fun experience.”

 

The competition between the Del Castillo sisters may spill over to track season if they both decide to compete in the 100 and 200-meter dash events. “We’re competitive in academics and track too,” Lia said. 

 

McCorkell said the other players follow their lead. “They're both natural leaders, they're never rattled by anything,” he said. “So the girls, even though they may be older than them, the other girls kind of follow their lead.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.