Newport edges Sage
Sage Hill might as well have been “Sage Mountain” at The Tennis Club Newport Beach, where the Newport Harbor High girls’ tennis team had to claw its way back in an intense, thrilling and eventful match on Tuesday. It can be said Newport Harbor conquered that mountain.
Trailing by two points after two rounds, the Sailors rallied for a 10-8 nonleague victory that gave Coach Kristen Case’s girls plenty of confidence and momentum as they head into Sunset League play on Thursday against Fountain Valley.
Yes, Newport Harbor flipped the script in the final round with a 5-1 run that included wins from Jenn Kingsley and Hannah Blower in singles, and the doubles teams of Anna Burke/Kendall Cosenza; Elle Zielinski/Livi Zehnder; Tayln Anderson/Eva Newsom.
“The last round was everything that we talked about that we want to be,” Case said. “It was what we want to stand for, which is courage and fight, resilience.”
Tennis coaching great Nick Bollettieri, who teaches at The Tennis Club, spoke to both teams before the match. He encouraged the girls to play “like winners do and leave everything on the court.” The Sailors (6-1) and the Lightning (3-1) did not disappoint.
“They knew we had one more round left to play,” Case said of her girls. “It would have been really easy at that point, after two very tight rounds and coming on the short end of it, to check out and to think there’s no possible way. And rather than do that they rallied back together and came back that last round. They rallied one another to leave it all on the court.”
Kingsley, the NHHS senior, proved to be inspirational to her teammates, as she battled a cold, yet was the only player who swept, winning 6-1, 6-0, 6-2. She endured coughing fits, while disposing each opponent.
“It has to be pretty bad for me to sit out,” Kingsley said of her cold, that she has been fighting since Monday.
“She’s a fighter,” said Cosenza, who then turned to Kingsley during an interview after the win.
“Thanks for fighting for our team today, it meant a lot to us,” Cosenza told Kingsley.
Burke and Cosenza, commonly referred to as, “Anna-Ken,” showed plenty of fight after they had lost to the Sage Hill No. 2 doubles team of Michelle Hung and Connie Yu, 7-6 (5).
The Newport Harbor No. 1 doubles team appeared frustrated and upset after the loss in the second round. Sage Hill came out strong with a 4-2 lead after the first round. And after Burke and Cosenza lost, Newport Harbor and Sage Hill tied, 3-3, in the second round.
The Lightning led, 7-5, going into the final round.
Burke and Cosenza bounced back with a key 6-3 win over Celine Wang and Maya Byrd, the Sage Hill No. 3 doubles team that earned two wins.
Anderson and Newsom, Newport Harbor’s No. 3 doubles team, posted two victories after losing in the first round. Zielinski and Zehnder won when it matter most, contributed their lone win in the final round, as did Blower, who beat Sage Hill’s No. 2 Isabella Deckey, 6-2.
“We just knew going into that last round, the person who wins has the most energy,” Cosenza said. “We were thinking we’re going to be that team on top. We want to be the team that wins. We knew it was a big match for our team.”
Nicole Condas, Sage Hill’s No. 3 singles player, won twice, as did Hung and Yu.
“I’m very pleased with how we played,” Sage Hill Coach AG Longoria said. “We could’ve won. There were a lot of close matches. I was really surprised that we played them as close as we did. They are well coached, especially in doubles. We got a lot of our points in doubles. It bodes well before we start league. We got moved to No. 4 in [the CIF Southern Section Division 2] rankings. We think we can make a deep run.”