CdM, Sage Hill garner No. 3 CIF seeds

Rick Devereux

All five Newport-Mesa girls tennis teams will have a chance for the

ultimate prize in the CIF Southern Section playoffs, the pairings for

which were released Monday.

Corona del Mar High and Sage Hill are No. 3 seeds in Division I

and Division V, respectively.

CdM (15-3), which won its eighth consecutive Pacific Coast League

championship this fall, opens Thursday at 2 p.m. against visiting

Rosary (9-10).

Sage Hill (12-6), the Academy League runner-up, plays host to San

Dimas (9-6) Thursday at 2 p.m.

Newport Harbor (13-7), plays host to Thousand Oaks (13-5) in a

Division I first-round game tentatively scheduled for Thursday at 2

p.m.

Estancia (13-5), co-champion of the Golden West League, meets

visiting Sierra Vista (13-4) in a Division V first-round clash

scheduled Thursday at 2 p.m.

Costa Mesa (8-9) visits No. 4-seeded Santa Ynez (16-2) Thursday at

2 p.m.

CdM, which won back-to-back CIF Division IV titles in 2000 and

2001 and has captured seven section crowns, is led by league doubles

champions Jill Damion, a sophomore, and freshman Alexandra Walters.

Rosary finished third in the Serra League.

Sage Hill has several repeat first-team all-league performers in

Alle Hsu, Sarah Flynn, Salen Andrews, Carissa Cummings, Grace Graham

and Rachel Heyler.

Sophomore Alyssa Lee is a second-team all-league selection this

year.

Hsu and Flynn, who normally play singles, were the league doubles

runners-up.

The Lightning, who were the undefeated league champions last year,

finished behind No. 2-seeded Fairmont Prep (15-0) in the Academy

League.

Newport Harbor, second in the Sea View League, is led by senior

Jill Casserly, who finished third in the league singles tournament.

Thousand Oaks earned an at-large berth after finishing in a

three-way tie for second in the Marmonte League.

Estancia shared the league title with Westminster, but the Eagles

lost the tiebreaker to get the league’s No. 2 playoff designation.

The Eagles, ranked No. 8 in the final CIF Division V poll, are led

by league runners-up Sarah Stratton (singles) as well as Marci

Kirchberg and Sara Muradian (doubles).

Heather Morton was third at the league singles tournament, where

Cathy Pittman and Sage O’Toole teamed to finish third in doubles.

Costa Mesa finished third in league, behind the strong play of

doubles tandems Leah Le and Hong-An Nguyen, as well as Maria Garcia

and Uyen Le.