Girls’ Tennis: Sage Hill’s season ends after loss to Murrieta Valley
By the third go-round in a CIF Southern Section Division 2 girls’ tennis quarterfinal, Sage Hill School Coach A.G. Longoria was seeking positives and looking toward the future.
He sees a bright future. Nevertheless, he was forced to look ahead after No. 2 seed Murrieta Valley dominated the first two go-rounds and won, 15-3, Monday at The Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club. The Nighthawks had earned the 10th clinching set before the final go-round.
Longoria knew his team was eliminated and so he substituted. He also took pride in a good season and the fact the Lightning reached the quarterfinals.
“I told everyone that the third round of this match is the start of next season,” Longoria said. “We are very excited. Our goal was to win in one round in the playoffs with this young team. We got to the quarters, which is more than what we expected.”
Sage Hill senior Tess Alexander concurred and since the Lightning had exceeded expectations they entered Monday’s match with a nothing-to-lose attitude.
“We were just excited to play and not nervous,” said Alexander, who teamed with Marina Anderson to earn one win at No. 3 doubles.
Murrieta Valley (22-0), which lost in the Division 3 final on games to Arroyo Grande last year, swept in singles. The Nighthawks possess great depth and are poised to reach the final this season. They play host to Laguna Beach in the semifinals Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Emily Maxfield, who has not dropped a set this season, and Jovana Koljanin lead the Murrieta Valley singles effort as the No. 1 and 2 singles players.
The Lightning were forced to earn their wins in doubles. The Sage Hill No. 1 doubles team of seniors Abby Ruck and Amira Tarsadia earned a win, as did No. 3 doubles team Katelyn Harvey and junior Crystal Yu.
Overall, the Lightning were pleased to reach the quarterfinals.
“We definitely did not expect to get this far,” Ruck said. “It was a big win for us to beat Santa Monica [10-8, in the second round]. One of our goals was to make it farther in the playoffs than our rival, St. Margaret’s, which we did so everyone is happy about that.”