Apaches eliminate Sage Hill from CIF-SS Division 2 girls’ tennis playoffs
ARCADIA — The Sage Hill School girls’ tennis team will practice Thursday with the hope of playing at least one more match. But whether the Lightning earn a berth into the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs or not, they at least have one firm, sustaining goal.
After an 18-0 loss to host Arcadia in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs on Wednesday, Lightning Coach A.G. Longoria gave his youthful team something to focus on as soon as it returns to the court.
“Next year, this is the team we’ll have to beat,” Longoria said after his No. 3-seeded squad was overwhelmed by the No. 2-seeded Apaches. “If everyone works hard, we can beat this team in a year.”
Bold thinking, indeed, against an Arcadia squad that improved to 20-0, will make its first CIF final appearance since 2012, and starts three freshmen in a singles lineup that won 54 of 63 games on Wednesday.
The Apaches, who lost in the second round to eventual section champion Valencia, 10-8, in 2014 and are 38-1 the last two seasons, will seek the program’s first section crown against No. 4-seeded Murietta Valley, which upset top-seeded Valencia on Wednesday.
Sage Hill, meanwhile, will hope to be one of two Southern Section Division 2 teams to make the regional playoffs, after seeing its 17-match winning streak snapped and falling to 17-3.
“They were nine blue-chip [lineup spots],” Longoria said of an Arcadia team that had its three top singles players last season shifted into doubles by this year’s talented singles lineup. “[The Apaches] beat us worse than Corona del Mar did [17-1 earlier this season]. Can they beat CdM? I don’t know. But they can certainly beat us.”
Sage Hill won just seven games in doubles and won no more than two games in any set in singles or doubles.
Sophomore Kayla “Cat” Kiani won five games at No. 2 singles, while senior Jaclyn Gerschultz claimed four games at No. 3 singles to put up the biggest fight for the visitors.
About the only drama in the match occurred in the opening round, when Arcadia freshman No. 1 singles ace Michelle Deng created quite a stir.
Deng mistakenly protested a line call by Sage sophomore Maya Byrd in the fourth game of their set and requested that each team provide a line judge for the rest of the match. To make the request, however, she left the court to speak with her coach in the nearby football stands.
Sage coaches contended that leaving the court would require Deng to default the set, under CIF rules. But the Arcadia coaches contended that United States Tennis Assn. rules allow a player to leave the court to ask an official to assign line judges.
Sage eventually relented and allowed Deng to continue with a warning.
Deng, the Pacific League singles champion, later argued erroneously that she closed out a game when she scored a point after the first deuce of the game. Actually, however, the new 2015 deuce-plus-one rule designed to shorten matches, was not applied until the point following the second deuce.
Deng was more successful with her racquet, sweeping her two sets, before being lifted for a substitution.
Longoria said his team attained its goal of reaching the semifinals and earning prestige as one of the top 10 teams in Orange County.
And with six underclassmen in the nine-player starting lineup Wednesday, the Lightning, playing in the semifinals for the first time in four years, have much to look forward to.
“I’m also very impressed with the class and effort with which you played,” Longoria told his players after the match. “You can hold your heads high.”
Sophomore Isabella Deckey and freshman partner Michelle Hung won three games in their two sets at No. 1 doubles.
Sage’s No. 3 doubles tandem of sophomore Nicole Condas and freshman Miranda deBruyne also won three games in their two sets, before being replaced by substitutes.
Longoria said he will know Saturday, whether the Lightning will be chosen to compete in the regional playoffs.
“I think we have a good shot,” Longoria said.
