Unheralded duo wanting more

Throughout the season, they were in the background, although they won, they went seemingly unnoticed.

Lindsay Zotovich and Karen Ishii, ever heard of them?

They are sophomores from Corona del Mar High. Yes, they play tennis. And, they are good.

Yet, while the Sea Kings captured CIF Southern Section Division I and Pacific Coast League titles, players like Zotovich and Ishii were mainly known as solid contributors or those who added depth to a dominant team.

But in the CIF Individual Tournament, they are known as a doubles team that has made it to the Round of 16, which starts Thursday at the Seal Beach Tennis Center. Some might be surprised by the duo’s success, but there’s no shock at CdM.

“I’m not surprised by it at all,” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said. “Our doubles records against Orange County teams is 126-6.”

But there is some surprise to this tandem of Zotovich and Ishii. They had played only one set during the season before teaming up for the PCL finals.

Zotovich had usually been paired with Melissa Matsuoka, but the freshman, following the advice of Ricker, competed in singles. Matsuoka went on to win the PCL individual title.

Zotovich and Ishii? Well, they reached the PCL doubles title match and lost to a pair of well-known tennis players: Jill Damion and Cierra Gaytan-Leach. The PCL doubles champions are also in the Round of 16. That was expected.

But who would have thought two players who teamed up for just one set during the season would go so far in the CIF Individual Tournament? Zotovich and Ishii did.

“I’m sort of surprised and sort of not,” Ishii said. “Lindsay is a great doubles player. She’s the type that can play with anyone. I knew it was going to be easy to adapt to her. I’m really happy we got this far. In that third round it was hard. It was a good surprise, but I had some confidence going into it.”

Ishii said she gained even more confidence in Zotovich after they defeated Troy’s Jennifer Chow and Erica Liao, 6-2, 6-4 in the third round at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center on Nov. 18.

“Karen is a really good player and easy to play with,” Zotovich said. “Our styles are almost the same. It was easy to play real well and start off well with her.”

Throughout the season, Corona del Mar’s singles players, Damion, Gaytan-Leach and Hailey Hogan have received most of the accolades and gained attention. And there was also the novelty of No. 1 doubles team Hayley and Miranda Young, who are twins.

“That doesn’t really bother me [that they were noticed],” Zotovich said. “They work really hard and they deserve it. It’s just good to see the team is being noticed. It personally doesn’t bother me that I’m put in the paper or not.”

Zotovich and Ishii definitely contributed to the Sea Kings’ CIF Division I team title, though they were not doubles partners when Corona del Mar defeated Troy, 13-5 on Nov. 21.

Zotovich was with Matsuoka and swept their sets at No. 2 doubles. Ishii teamed up with sophomore Danielle Kaiden and they won twice before being substituted out after the Sea Kings had clinched the win.

Now Zotovich and Ishii are together and ready for the rest of the CIF tournament. Ricker believes they can go even further than the Round of 16.

“If they get a decent draw they can win a few more rounds,” Ricker said.

Thursday’s action, which starts at 11:30 a.m., will also include the quarterfinals. The draws will be released on Thursday.

The semifinals and finals will take place Friday, when the semifinals begin at 10:30 a.m., also at Seal Beach Tennis Center.

“I understand people’s feeling that they haven’t heard of us because we haven’t been playing together much,” Ishii said of her and Zotovich. “But, they’re not on the team so they wouldn’t understand. But we’re just happy to be playing. Right now we are just having fun.”