By: Vincent Aldridge
2 weeks ago , the girls played hard, and gave it their all in their home tournament, The Annual Tip Off Classic. The girls are happy with their overall performance of 3-1, because they didn’t lose by very many points in their one loss. Redwood got third in the tournament overall, Hanford finished on top, and Bakersfield Christian got second because they won head to head against Redwood but had the same record for the tournament with Redwood.
Their most valuable player for the tournament was Jackie Ledesma, ’19, who, in the words of Natalie Robles, ’21 :”I think Jackie had very good threes that really built up the team, and just made us do better.”
After the tournament they were 5-2 putting them at 3rd place in Valley, which gives them an incredible chance at going far in the playoffs. This is due to the fact that Redwood has played some pretty hard teams, which gives them a strength of 5.4 in their schedule. The higher the strength, the more points received, which puts teams higher in the playoffs. The 5th place team, Liberty, has had an incredibly tough schedule which consists of a strength of 10.4. Their overall record is 3-3. Finally, the first place team, Bakersfield has a strength of 5.4 as well. They’re in first, due to the fact that they are 5-1.
Savannah Surfus, ’19 believes the toughest game of the tournament had to have been Bakersfield Christian, “just because they had really big girls and a small team, and had a really FAST good point guard, it took us a while before we were able to stop her, so that’s probably why we also lost.” The girls are looking very strong and confident so far.
After this tournament, the girls went on to win in overtime against Mission Oak on the following Monday. From here the girls had a week and a half to prepare for the Monarch Holiday Showdown at Exeter Union High School. Their first game was on 12/12 and they won 59-8 against Lindsay where every girl on the team scored. The next game for them is today as they take on Hoover at 6:30 again at EUHS.