Sea Kings double up

For a photo gallery of Thursday’s action, click here.

SEAL BEACH — Melissa Matsuoka and Hailey Hogan sat in the shade Thursday at the Seal Beach Tennis Center after advancing to the CIF Southern Section Individuals doubles semifinals.

The Corona del Mar High sophomores did homework while watching their teammates, CdM juniors Danielle Kaiden and Paige Polizois, also try to advance to the semis.

No need to worry too much about homework on this day, though. On the court, both teams received much more than passing grades.

The Sea Kings doubles teams of Matsuoka and Hogan, as well as Kaiden and Polizois, each advanced to today’s semifinals. Of the four Southern California doubles teams left, two are from Coach Brian Ricker’s squad, which Ricker said has never happened in his combined six-year stint as coach of the Laguna Beach and CdM girls’ tennis programs.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Ricker said. “It’s a good day for CdM.”

No. 2-seeded Matsuoka and Hogan got past Ana Cottle and Lisa Hardebeck of El Modena, 6-1, 6-0, in the Round of 16 before dispatching Troy’s Samantha Nadres and Stephanie Hui, 6-4, 6-3.

Kaiden and Polizois, meanwhile, defeated Katie and Melissa Cecil of Ocean View, 6-4, 6-2, before outlasting Paloma Vasquez and Janay Paliote of Redlands, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. They’ll face No. 1-seeded Brynn Boren and Kristina Smith of Dana Hills today at 11 a.m. in one semifinal, while Matsuoka and Hogan will face Molly Aloia and Haley Dixon of Great Oak (Temecula) in the other.

The championship match will follow.

Thursday’s match against Redlands was tight for the duration. Kaiden and Polizois were up a set and 4-3 in the second set, before losing three straight games to level the match at one set all.

Both players also became noticeably frustrated on the court.

“It was definitely an annoying match,” said Kaiden, laughing after the match when the win was already secure. “We started off and kind of thought we had it in the bag. But no, I don’t think we did.”

But they kept their cool, enough to grab a 3-2 lead in the decisive third set. Then, in a marathon sixth game that went to eight deuces, Kaiden and Polizois eventually broke to go ahead 4-2.

Serving for the match at 5-4, Kaiden went to deuce, but the CdM duo won when a Redlands volley went into the net.

“We wanted Danielle to change the pace up, with more lobbing,” Ricker said. “Paige got a little bit wider with her ground strokes, and [Redlands] stopped poaching, so that worked out ... I was definitely proud of the fact that they didn’t give up and pulled that third set out. That was a nice example of two teams that play good doubles.”

Hogan and Matsuoka were down, 4-3, in the first set against their Troy opponents before winning three consecutive games. Similarly in the second set, they were down, 3-2, but won the last four games of the set.

“Each match we play together, we get better and better,” Matsuoka said. “We know what the other person’s going to do.”

Nadres and Hui were the same Warriors team that Kaiden and Polizois beat, 7-5, to secure CdM’s CIF Southern Section Division I semifinal win over Troy.

“We saw them play Danielle and Paige in that final match,” Hogan said. “We knew they would be tough, but we won the big points today.”

Her partner agreed.

“We just had to pull it together,” Matsuoka said. “We had to concentrate and make our volleys.”

More toughness will be needed today, if either Corona del Mar team is to become the first CIF doubles champion from the school since Taylynn Snyder and Brittany Holland won in 2002.

Boren and Smith will be trying to make the finals for the second consecutive year, while Aloia (No. 67 in the Southern California girls’ 18s rankings) and Dixon (No. 10 in girls’ 16s) of Great Oak are both successful singles players.

“We want to win it,” Hogan said. “We’ve just got to take it one match at a time. [Today’s] going to be really tough.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].