by Luke Finkel, staff writer

The Grizzlies’ average tennis season was greatly  overshadowed by its fantastic ending.

Senior Kellie Taylor and junior Shannon Hung won the first NCS doubles title in school history last month.

Kellie and Shannon, who entered NCS as the top seed in the Division I doubles bracket, defeated the Miramonte pair of Anastasia Kaiser and Hanne Anderson in a three-set battle for the title.

The Cal High duo took the first set 7-5, starting off winning the first five games. But the second set told a different story as Kellie and Shannon lost  six straight games to send it to a deciding set.

Kellie and Shannon rebounded to win the final set 6-3 and become NCS champions.

“We were all very excited,” said Kellie

This came after a dominating 6-3, 6-0 victory  in the semifinals over Northgate.

Cal started the season with a lot of young players after losing many seniors. But the team kept its anchors, Kellie and Shannon, to help lead them through the EBAL tournament and now through NCS.

Kellie and Shannon lost in the final of last year’s NCS doubles bracket to a team from Mission San Jose.

“We didn’t want it to be like last year,” Kellie said. “We really wanted to win this year.”

The two achieved the NCS title they worked for, but this was the last match for the pair as Kellie will graduate this year.

“It was a relief when it was over, but it was fun. I’m really going to miss having Kellie as a doubles partner,” said junior Shannon Hung.

Shannon will return to resume her position as the team’s No. 1 player.

“Kellie is not a player who will be easily replaced,” said coach Laurie Radanovich. “Luckily Cal will get to keep its other star, Shannon Hung.”