CdM’s Gaytan-Leach focusing on next step

Corona del Mar High junior Cierra Gaytan-Leach will not be playing girls’ tennis or golf for the Sea Kings this season, her mother Noel confirmed.

Gaytan-Leach, 15, was a first-team All-Pacific Coast League performer in both sports for CdM last fall as a sophomore. She went 22-6 in singles and 11-0 in doubles in helping the tennis team to the CIF Southern Section Division I title.

Her freshman year, Gaytan-Leach was home-schooled.

Noel Gaytan said the plan is for Gaytan-Leach to stay enrolled at CdM High, at least during the fall quarter. But much of the reason she won’t play sports for the Sea Kings this year is that Gaytan-Leach is playing in tournaments on the professional circuit.

Gaytan-Leach played in two $10,000 International Tennis Federation tournaments this summer, in Wichita, Kan., and St. Joseph, Mo. In the latter tournament, she got a wild-card into the singles main draw before losing in three sets to Tori Kinard, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

But any prize money Gaytan-Leach might win will be refused so she can keep her college eligibility, her mother said.

“We’re kind of taking it slowly right now,” Noel Gaytan said. “She had a great time playing on the CdM tennis and golf teams. But now she’ll focus on the next step for her. She needs to figure out if it’s something she really wants to do.”

Gaytan-Leach is ranked No. 8 in Southern California, and No. 88 in the country, in the most recent United States Tennis Assn. girls’ 16 singles rankings.

— Matt Szabo