No. 5 Knights Set to Play No. 1 Bakersfield in 1st Round Playoff

San Diego City earned the No. 5 seed in the 3C2A Southern California regional tournament and will travel to play at No. 1 Bakersfield on Tuesday, April 8 at 1 p.m. It's the second consecutive season that the Knights have qualified for the postseason and the third time under head coach Jami Yonekura-Jones. 

The Knights, who won their second straight PCAC championship after going undefeated (8-0) without losing any singles or doubles matches, finished the regular season with a 13-4 overall record and will play a Bakersfield team that went 16-0.

In a traditional bracket the top seed would play the lowest seed (Ventura), but No. 1 Bakersfield and No. 8 Ventura are in the same conference so they cannot play in the first round due to a 3C2A rule that prevents that.

Because of that rule, the Knights had the misfortune of being moved into a matchup against top-seeded Bakersfield. 

However, San Diego City will go into Tuesday's playoff riding a wave of momentum after winning 11 of the last 13 matches.

City's No. 1 duo, Angie Palmerin and Bethlehem Gezahegne, won the PCAC doubles championship last Friday and they both advanced to conference singles championship match, which will be held at San Diego City College with date and time yet to be determined.

Palmerin and Gezahegne also qualified for the state championships for singles and doubles along with four other Knights, including Chiara Burgin, Thi Bich Ngoc Dang, Jessica Hoffpauir, and Anya Villanueva.

The 3C2A state championships will be held from April 24-27 at the Ojai Valley Tennis Club.