Corona del Mar girls’ tennis powers into CIF Open Division semifinals
The Corona del Mar and Fountain Valley high school girls’ tennis teams became quite familiar with each other over the course of the season.
The Sea Kings beat the Barons in two close league matches, then several of the players again did battle at the Sunset League individual championships last week.
Not only that, but CdM and Fountain Valley were paired together Friday in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.
Another close match ensued, but CdM used a balanced effort to earn a 11-7 victory at its home courts.
No. 4-seeded Corona del Mar (16-2) will play at top-seeded Palos Verdes (21-0) in an Open Division semifinal match on Wednesday.
The match is a battle of teams with the Sea King as a mascot. The Corona del Mar contingent lost at Palos Verdes 10-8 in a nonleague match on Sept. 3, but is happy with being in the final four and getting another shot.
The team’s core group of juniors lost in the Open Division quarterfinals each of the last two years.
CdM also had just one senior starter Friday, Eden Clark.
“Since we lost a lot of seniors from last year, I thought our team wasn’t going to do as good,” CdM junior Polina Briggs said. “I was kind of surprised at how good we’re doing this year.”
Emilie Lew and Briggs, the Sunset League singles champion, swept in singles Friday against Fountain Valley (13-3). The CdM No. 1 doubles team of junior Isabel Roytman and freshman Madi Jackson also swept.
Lew missed time with an ankle injury this season, but she looked sharp Friday, starting off with an impressive 6-1 win over Fountain Valley junior Chloe Vu.
“[The ankle] was not feeling great [Thursday] so I was a little bit nervous about playing the match today,” Lew said. “This is a really important match. I’m really glad that I got [a win against Vu] out of the way in the beginning. The rest, I had my confidence up, so it kind of just was just a breeze.”
Roytman and Jackson edged league doubles champions Katelyn Nguyen and Kendra Ly 6-4 in the first round. In the second round, it was CdM’s Sasha Briggs and Giulia Fontana who earned a 7-6 (7-2) win over Nguyen and Ly.
The two close doubles wins helped Corona del Mar take a 4-2 lead after the first round, an 8-4 advantage after the second round and clinch the match soon after.
Fountain Valley coach Harshul Patel said it was the first time that Nguyen and Ly had lost to Roytman and Jackson in four meetings this season. Still, he was proud of his team, as he said a No. 5 ranking in the Open Division was a program best.
Each of Fountain Valley’s three losses this season were to CdM, 9-9 (80-75 on games) on Sept. 12 and 11-7 on Oct. 8.
“For us to even compete at this level and go this close to CdM, it’s really an achievement for our team,” Patel said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
The doubles teams of Jaslyn Nguyen and Athena Tran, as well as Katie Lam and Kacie Lam, each won twice for Fountain Valley.
CdM got one singles win from Julia Cross.
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