Huntington Beach’s Kaytlin Taylor rallies to win Wave League girls’ tennis singles title
Huntington Beach High junior Kaytlin Taylor sprawled out on the court Thursday afternoon, yelling out in pain at the most inopportune moment.
Taylor was two points from the win over Marina freshman Mika Ikemori in the Wave League girls’ tennis singles title match. She was also two points from the loss.
Taylor started cramping in the decisive third-set 10-point tiebreaker. At 9-all, she couldn’t take it anymore and fell to the ground at Marina High.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play or not,” she said. “It started in my right quad, and then it moved to my left, then my left calf. That’s what hurt the most. I could feel it during the tiebreaker kind of building up, but I didn’t think it would get that bad.”
After an injury timeout, Taylor roared back. She hit a service winner to set up a match point, which she converted.
She earned a dramatic 1-6, 6-3, 11-9 victory over Ikemori, who was previously undefeated this season, for the title. Laguna Beach senior Ella Pachl and sophomore Sarah MacCallum won the Wave League doubles title, 7-5, 6-1 over Edison senior Zoe Coggins and sophomore Kailee You in the final.
Both singles players and doubles teams advance to the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament, which begins Nov. 25 at a site to be determined.
Taylor was apologetic to Ikemori after the match for winning in the way she did. Both players exhibited good sportsmanship. But what turned the match around for Taylor, who had lost 7-6 (14-12) to Ikemori in the Oilers’ 10-6 league win over the Vikings on Oct. 17, was increased patience.
“The first set, I came out and I was getting really frustrated because I was making a lot of mistakes,” Taylor said. “Then at the start of the second set, I was kind of embarrassed almost. I know I looked crazy, being so upset, so I just thought I would calm down and see how that did for me. I’d say the biggest difference was definitely just mental. That’s often the case when I play Mika, because she’s such a great player and she can get everything back. It’s all mental for me.”
Taylor beat Marina junior Makenna Livingston 6-1, 7-6 in one singles semifinal, while Ikemori topped Huntington Beach sophomore Cindy Huynh 6-3, 6-1 in the other.
The Breakers’ Pachl and MacCallum also showed patience in the doubles final against Coggins and You. The Edison duo had a 5-3 lead in the first set, and a set point in MacCallum’s service game. But Pachl and MacCallum won four straight games to win the set.
“The wind kind of started picking up there,” said MacCallum, last year’s league singles champion. “Then we got used to it. They were playing really well in the first set, too. They had some really nice shots and serves, but we got used to it, and I started making my returns.”
Pachl, a UC San Diego commit, has been playing doubles all season as she works through a shoulder injury.
“I’ve known Sarah since I was probably 5, so it’s fun,” Pachl said. “I thought throughout playing doubles this season, I could work on my serve. I serve differently in doubles than I do in singles, so I feel like that helped a lot. I felt like I was serving well.
“Doubles is obviously more fun, more enjoyable. I feel like it’s pressure than playing singles. It’s fun to do that senior year.”
Coggins, who is committed to Dominican University of California, advanced to CIF Individuals for the second straight year but the first time in doubles. She was last year’s league singles runner-up.
“It was a lot of fun playing with my girl [You],” Coggins said. “I saw that there was a lot of really good players in singles. Since I’m playing college tennis next year, I wanted to get my hand in doubles. I kind of had that plan for the last four years, to play my senior year in doubles.”
Livingston won the third-place singles match, while Edison’s Shannon Stolaruk and Katie Kerley won the third-place doubles match. Each will be alternates for CIF Individuals.
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