CdM’s Sharf, Dunk are league champs
IRVINE — Corona del Mar High senior Siena Sharf and junior Jasie Dunk both played singles all season for the CdM girls’ tennis team.
For the Pacific Coast League finals, however, they decided to double up.
“Right after [regular] season ended, I was thinking about it,” Sharf said. “Jasie came up to me at practice, and she was like, ‘Siena, you playing singles in Individuals?’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to.’ And she said, ‘Let’s play together.’ I think it was good throughout the whole season playing singles, to stay more consistent and everything. And it’s exciting at the end of the season to come together as a team to win.”
Sharf and Dunk indeed justified the decision on Thursday afternoon at Beckman High. The top seeds captured the league doubles final, beating University’s Michelle Maddox and Ashlyn Wang, 8-3, in the title match after topping the Trojans’ Tiffany Markus and Sasha Iraniha, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinals.
By placing top-two in league, Sharf and Dunk advance to the CIF Individuals tournament beginning Nov. 23. So does CdM sophomore Danielle Willson in singles for the second straight year.
Willson outlasted fellow sophomore Ashley Teng of Beckman, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, in the league semifinals. It was a big victory for Willson, who had lost to Teng during two league matches this season.
Willson then fell to Kerisa Lin of Northwood, 8-4, in the singles title match.
CdM’s doubles team of Erica Chen and Camellia Edalat, the No. 2 seeds, were upset by Maddox and Wang, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals before beating Markus and Iraniha, 8-6, in the third-place match.
Sharf, who advanced to the CIF Individuals round of 16 last year with graduate Riley Gerdau, is back in the postseason this year with Dunk. The two played power tennis against University on Thursday.
“It feels great,” Dunk said. “I think we work well together because we hit hard, and we both like to serve and volley. Siena definitely played well in this tournament. I was playing so nervous. I was so tense in the [semifinal] match, I had to stretch before the [final] because my hamstring was so sore. We got off to a rough start, for sure, and then we started to get more accurate I guess.”
Willson, who advanced to the CIF Individuals round of 32 in singles last year, had to stay mentally tough against Teng, a very steady left-hander.
“The first set was rough,” Willson said. “I just thought about how I didn’t have anything to lose in this match. She’s beaten me both times this year, and she was seeded higher than me. I just needed to play my game rather than get balls back. I’m not that great of a mover, and if she’s just attacking me, then there’s no way I could have won. I think the key was to be playing my game, making her move.
“[Advancing to CIF Individuals] two times in a row boosts my confidence a little bit. I think that helps when I go out into CIF.”
From a team aspect, CdM now prepares for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, which begin on Wednesday. The Sea Kings will likely be the No. 2-seeded team. This year, they displaced rival Uni, winning their first league title since 2009.
“Our big goal we made at the beginning of the season was to win league and make the finals of CIF,” Dunk said. “We won league, and so now we have to get to the finals.”
