Story and photo by Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

College of the Canyons was forced to close out the regular season in shorthanded fashion with the Lady Cougars suffering an 8-1 loss to visiting Bakersfield College on Thursday.

Canyons lost all four of its singles matches and was forced to forfeit two more after injuries prevented COC from fielding a complete lineup.

Those still able to compete were forced to play up in the lineup, with usual No. 4 player Celeste Hernandez playing in the No. 2 spot vs. Bakersfield. Same for usual No. 5 Seleste Sakato and No. 6 Calista Lian who moved up to play in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, vs. the Renegades.

The loss was the second in as many matches for COC which also fell 0-9 to Glendale College on Tuesday, largely the result of those same injuries that limited the Cougars on Thursday. Canyons had previously defeated Glendale 5-4 earlier in the season.

On Thursday, it was the doubles combination of Una Stanisavljevic and Sakato that managed to secure a match point and prevent the shutout with an 8-2 doubles victory.

Canyons finishes the 2019 regular season, just the second in program history, with a 9-7 overall record. COC finished the Western State Conference portion of its schedule at 9-5 to place third among the eight competing programs.

By comparison, COC completed its inaugural season in 2018 with a 4-12 record to finish sixth in the conference.

COC will next compete in the WSC Singles & Doubles Championships hosted by Ventura College April 5-6.

Full match results are listed below:

Singles
1. Una Stanisavljevic (COC) loses to Kayleen Sanchez (BC) — 3-6, 3-6

2. Celeste Hernandez (COC) loses to Paige Darstein (BC) —1-6, 1-6

3. Seleste Sakato (COC) loses to Katelyn Wernhart (BC) — 0-6, 0-6

4. Calista Lian (COC) loses to Jacqlyn Zavala (BC) —3-6, 1-6

5. COC loses to BC — Forfeit

6. COC loses to BC — Forfeit

Doubles
1. Stanisavljevic/Sakato (COC) defeats Sanchez/Leslie Pineda(BC) — 8-2

2. Hernandez/Lian (COC) loses to Zoe Butter/Ashlyne Aguilar (BC) — 4-8

3. COC loses to BC — Forfeit

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.