Girls’ Tennis: Los Al upsets CdM
LOS ALAMITOS — Los Alamitos High girls’ tennis coach Kevin Garrett called it the biggest win in program history.
For Corona del Mar, it was just another tough nonleague loss.
The Sea Kings, ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, were upset on the road Wednesday afternoon. The No. 7-ranked Griffins posted a 10-8 victory.
It was CdM’s second straight loss to a fellow Division 1 power, following a setback to Santa Barbara on Saturday by the same score. And it doesn’t exactly equate to positive momentum for CdM, which is playing host to four-time defending Pacific Coast League champion University on Thursday.
“They’ve had our [number] for a few years now,” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said of the Trojans, ranked No. 2 in Division 1. “So hopefully we can just keep competing and get closer and closer. This is back-to-back 8-10 losses. Hopefully our team will rebound from that and build a little more character from close losses, and get some close wins.”
The Sea Kings (8-3) have had a particularly hard early-season schedule, which also includes a 15-3 loss at top-ranked Palos Verdes Peninsula.
“It’s been tough, because we’ve had all of our really tough matches in a row,” said senior Riley Gerdau, who won twice at No. 1 doubles Wednesday with junior Siena Sharf. “We haven’t really had time to practice what we need to practice, and get better at things that we haven’t done very well at. It’s definitely a really good learning experience for [Sharf and me], because we haven’t had that much experience together against really tough teams. These [matches] are going to help us in the long run, definitely.”
Garrett said Los Alamitos (3-2) posted its first win over a top-two Orange County team in program history on Wednesday. His squad did it with a balanced effort.
Senior Jennifer Lu easily swept, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0, at No. 1 singles for the Griffins. The doubles team of senior Aliya Alenikov and junior Hope Hairrell also posted three wins, including a 7-6 (7-3) decision over Gerdau and Sharf in the last match on court.
Senior Sydney Bott and sophomore Erika Cheng won twice in doubles for the Griffins (3-2), who won four sets in the last round to clinch the match. And even if Gerdau and Sharf would have won that last tiebreaker set to tie the score 9-9, Los Alamitos would have won on games.
Ricker said Los Alamitos was deeper in doubles than he thought, and overall had the best doubles lineup that the Sea Kings have seen this year.
Garrett, in his fourth year as girls’ head coach at his alma mater, wouldn’t argue.
“We’re deep and we’re balanced,” Garrett said. “We don’t have one standout superstar that we ride to success ... We’re very satisfied with every single spot on this team. It’s just everybody doing their job, playing their role.”
Garrett said his team may have been a little intimidated when it lost to University, 12-6, earlier this season. That was not a problem against CdM, which hadn’t played Los Alamitos in recent years.
“None of these girls had played CdM at all,” he said. “They weren’t afraid of them, because they didn’t know them. They came out much more loose, relaxed, calm. When we play University, we know what they’re going to get ... there’s kind of this aura around University doubles.
“I think if the name on [CdM’s] jerseys was ‘Uni,’ we probably wouldn’t have won that first round 4-2, even if it’s the same kids.”
Los Alamitos did indeed win the first round 4-2, but CdM rallied in the second round to tie the match score 6-6. In the third round, though, only No. 1 singles player Danielle Willson and the No. 2 doubles team of Taylor Fogarty and Camellia Edalat were able to earn wins.
Willson and Jasie Dunk each won twice in singles for the Sea Kings, who will need to rebound quickly to have a shot against University. Last year, the Trojans won the teams’ two league meetings, each time by a score of 14-4.
