Cañada College women's tennis team capture Coast Conference crown

It remains to be seen if this year’s version of the Colts can match the 2016 run, but they took their first steps Wednesday by beating the Vikings 6-3 to finish the Coast Conference play at 11-1 and a tie with Chabot-Hayward for the conference crown.

“We had a good [season],” said Cañada head coach Bryan Jeong.

Cañada and Chabot split their two matches this season, handing each other their only losses in conference. Because the Gladiators beat the Colts in their second match, Chabot will have the higher seed when it comes to the playoffs.

Using a combination of players who are looking to transfer to four-year schools to continue their careers, along with those student-athletes Jeong refers to as “enrichment students” — those who have returned to college to further their education and decided to play tennis — the Colts put together a season that should have them highly seeded for the Nor Cal tournament that begins April 23 in Bakersfield.

One of those students in Denenberg, who not is like a coach on the court, she is a coach on the court. Denenberg is the head coach for the girls’ tennis team at Woodside High School and has a long background in sports. She played volleyball in college her first go-around, before going on to a career in physical therapy. She took up racquetball and tennis after retiring and joined the Cañada team in 2019.

“Once adversaries, now we’re good friends,” joked Jeong, who coaches against Denenberg as the head coach of the San Mateo High girls’ tennis team. “She inspires me. I love coaching her. She’s worked wonders … for many of the younger players on the team.”

But Denenberg is not just team mother. She is the part of the Colt’s No. 2 doubles team and slots into the No. 5 spot in the singles ladder. In college team tennis, there are three doubles matches and six singles matches. Players are allowed to play in both disciplines at the same time. The doubles matches are contested first, followed by the singles.

Cañada led 2-1 after the doubles portion of the match with West Valley, getting wins at No. 1 and No. 3. In singles play, the Colts won four of the six matches. Zuzia Dziewieçka, an international student from Poland, teamed with Josie Thompson to win the No. 1 doubles match 8-3. Dziewieçka came back to win at No. 1 singles as well, 6-2, 6-1.

Thompson would also win her No. 3 singles match, Susan Kettering and Claudia Westrum won at No. 3 doubles, while Cori Mehring rounding out the Colts’ winners on the day, posting a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 6 singles.

Jeong said Dziewieçka contacted him out of blue, from Poland, prior to the 2019-20 season. She was halfway through her freshman year when the COVID lockdown came.

“[Community college coaches] are kind of limited as to what we can do in terms of recruiting. Anyone out of area, you wait for them to come to us,” Jeong said. “[Dziewieçka] had reached out to me during the COVID year. … I did see one of her videos (of her playing). … She comes from a tennis background. … She’s quite a remarkable player.”

Michaela Llewelyn, a true freshman, has slotted into the Colts’ No. 2 doubles and singles slots, and while she went 0-2 against West Valley, she has been a solid addition to the Colts’ lineup.

Llewelyn is used to tennis success. She started her high school career at Menlo-Atherton before transferring to and graduating from Burlingame in 2020. She went 10-5 during the 2019 Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division season, playing mostly at No. 2 singles for the Panthers.

“She’s been quite an inspiration to the team,” Jeong said of Llewelyn. “She just has a great attitude.”

Jeong said the strength of the team is its depth as well as the fact that they love to play tennis. And they have to love playing. Because of the vagaries of the community college season, the Colts had, only about 10 days of official practice before their first match, which means the players have to be putting in practice and work on their own.

“You have to be a self-starter. To be motivated … while also being a full-time student,” Jeong said. “There is some distinction between 1 and 2 singles, and 2 and 3, but after that, they’re pretty interchangeable. Who do we put where? They’ve all been successful (this season).”