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Girls’ Tennis: Dons edge CdM

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When the Santa Barbara High girls’ tennis team defeated Newport Harbor in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship match in 2011, the Dons did it with a surprisingly large group of talented freshmen.

Those freshmen are now seniors. Guess what? They’re still good, and they showed it Saturday afternoon against another Back Bay team.

Santa Barbara’s No. 1 doubles team of Lexy Gulden and Cade Sorensen won the deciding set as the Dons upset Corona del Mar, 10-8, in a nonleague battle of Division 1 powers at the Sea Kings’ courts.

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Corona del Mar (7-2) came into the match ranked No. 4 in Division 1, with the Dons (5-0) at No. 5. Those rankings will most likely flip-flop next week.

For the Sea Kings, it was the first loss to Santa Barbara in two years. CdM beat the Dons, 10-8, during the regular season last year, and 11-7 in a Division 1 quarterfinal playoff match. In a different format, CdM also beat Santa Barbara, 4-3, to capture the California Tennis Classic in Fresno last month.

The Sea Kings were again ahead, 9-8, with enough games to secure victory Saturday. But Gulden and Sorensen flipped the script, defeating CdM’s No. 3 team of Shelby Anderson and Paige Kenerson, 6-3.

It was Santa Barbara’s lone doubles win of the day, though the trio of seniors Mattea Kilstoft, Summer Garrison and Madison Hale all swept in singles.

“We knew that our singles were doing well and our doubles were struggling,” Gulden said. “Corona has a really amazing doubles team, all three rounds. We knew it was going to come down to the last round. It was really a challenge, because Corona’s doubles teams are on point. They poach really well and have great volleys. It got a little nerve-wracking when we saw everybody on the court watching us.

“They’ve beat us three times in a row, so we definitely wanted to bring our best tennis out today. We didn’t want to lose four times in a row, so we really worked hard today. They put up a really great fight, and we all had to work really hard.”

CdM’s No. 1 doubles team of Riley Gerdau and Siena Sharf swept, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0. The No. 2 team of Taylor Fogarty and Camellia Edalat also swept, including a big tiebreaker victory over Gulden and Sorensen. Anderson and Kenerson won two of three sets.

The match was tied 3-3 after a round and 6-6 after two rounds. However, the Sea Kings had built up a 57-50 games advantage that they ended up never getting to use.

CdM, which was playing without singles player Elena Fish (sick), still had its chances in singles. Freshman Danielle Willson came the closest to winning two wildly different tiebreaker sets.

Willson lost a 5-1 lead in falling to Hale, 7-6 (7-4), in her first set. In her second set, she battled back from a 4-1 deficit before losing to Garrison in another tiebreaker, 7-6 (8-6).

“She’s working on the mental side,” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said of Willson. “I think this whole high school season is going to help her. It’s so many sets against different players, against good players. It’s helping her to grow and work out her rhythm on the court.”

The Sea Kings have a big week ahead. They play host to Woodbridge on Tuesday before playing at Los Alamitos (No. 7 in Division 1) on Wednesday. The next day, they play host to league rival University (No. 2 in Division 1). The Trojans have won four straight Pacific Coast League titles, but CdM looks to close the gap.

“Our goal is to stay in the four-five spot [in CIF], but we still have some hard matches to go,” Ricker said. “I think we’ll be closer [to University] this year than in the last two years, for sure. They have three good singles [players] and a good No. 1 doubles [team].”

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