PACIFIC COAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE / MAY 8, 2017
Griffs' Naono, Leslie are Women's Athletes of the Week
The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference has selected Grossmont College badminton players Yukari Naono and Rebekah Leslie as its Women's Athletes of the Week for May 1-7.
Naono, a freshman from Nihama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, was named PCAC Player of the Year after the Griffins swept to an unbeaten regular season and the conference championship.
Then, this past weekend, Naono was named Southern Region Player of the Year after she swept Pasadena City College opponents Sarah Thaw 21-13, 21-7 and Hong Yan Liu 21-2, 21-7 as the Griffins hosted the Lancers in a battle of unbeaten teams in the regional championship match.
Grossmont could fill only five of six spots on the ladder, handing three points to the Lancers and dropping an 11-10 decision to PCC. The Griffins fell one point shy of a trip to the team state championship match against Northern Region champion Fresno City College on Thursday at Mission College in Santa Clara.
Naono will attempt to finish an unbeaten season at the CCCAA State Individual Tournament on Friday and Saturday, also at Mission College as she bids for the state individual championship as a freshman.
Leslie, a sophomore from Patrick Henry High, teamed with Naono to sweep their Pasadena doubles opponents, beating Thaw / Liu 21-13, 21-7 and Natalie Ong / Amy Huang 21-10, 21-12.
Honorable mention was awarded to Palomar softball pitcher Drystal DesLauriers, San Diego Mesa Andreanna Mill and Southwestern softball player Alyssa Garrette.
DesLauriers, a freshman from Mission Hills High School, the PCAC Pitcher of the Year and a first-team all-state selection, ran her win-loss record to 22-5 with back-to-back complete-game victories as the 34-time conference champion Comets swept Pasadena City in a best-of-3 first-round regional playoff series 5-4 and 4-3 in 10 innings. In the second game, DesLauriers played a starring role with her bat, going 4-for-4 at the plate with a key double off the top of the fence that set up Lexi Williams' game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
Mill, a freshman from Whitney High School in Rocklin, near Sacramento, helped the Mesa swimming & diving team to second behind champion Sierra in the CCCAA State Meet at East Los Angeles College. She swam on two state-winning relay teams (400 freestyle and 800 freestyle) and also on a runner-up relay team (200 freestyle). She also swam the backstroke leg of the Olympians' ninth-place 200 medley relay team. Individually, Mills finished in fifth place in the 100 freestyle, was sixth in the 40 freestyle and placed ninth in the 200 freestyle. Mesa scored 322 points finishing behind the champion Sierra team (470 points) and just ahead of third-place Santa Rosa (310 points).
Garrette, a sophomore infielder/pitcher from Horizon Christian Academy and a transfer from San Diego City College, went 4-for-8 as the Jaguars played at home for the first time in school history in the first round of the Southern California Regionals. She went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and turned two double plays defensively and was 2-for-4 in the second game with two steals and a run scored but College of the Canyons swept the Jags 4-3 in eight innings and 10-5.
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