Girls’ Tennis: Sage wins opener
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Sophomore Lauren Fishman has not been one of the most heralded members of the Sage Hill School girls’ tennis team.
Fishman was not a starter at the beginning of the season, but earned that spot through hard work. Now she is a reliable singles player for the Lightning.
“She’s been very consistent and she’s earning points for us,” Sage Coach A.G. Longoria said. “I’m happy for her ... she’s worked really hard for it.”
Fishman swept her three singles sets Wednesday as the Lightning earned a 15-3 win at San Juan Hills in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.
In fact, the Lightning (10-5) swept all of their singles sets. Last year’s league singles MVP, junior Jaclyn Gerschultz, and freshman Isabella Deckey both won twice before being subbed out. And even the substitutes, freshman Nicole Condas and Maya Byrd, were able to earn singles wins in the last round.
It added up to a dominant effort for Sage Hill, which plays host to Santa Monica in the second round Friday at The Tennis Club. Santa Monica got past Burbank, 9-9 and 87-76 on games, in another first-round match Wednesday.
The Lightning will be underdogs in the second round, as Santa Monica finished sixth in the final Division 2 coaches’ poll while Sage Hill was 10th.
“We played pretty well [against San Juan Hills],” Longoria said. “ We’re still a little not where I’d like to be in doubles, but everyday I think we learn some stuff. We’ve been experimenting with lineups. We might tweak it a little bit. Our singles has been pretty solid.”
Seniors Amira Tarsadia and Abby Ruck won twice at No. 1 doubles for Sage, as did junior Celine Wang and sophomore Crystal Yu at No. 2 doubles. Junior Marina Anderson and senior Tess Alexander won once at No. 3 doubles, as did the substitute team of sophomores Michele Chen and Paige Reyna.
Tarsadia, Ruck and Alexander are co-captains, along with Wang.
“We went into the match thinking, ‘This isn’t our last match,’” Tarsadia said. “Being able to go and get ready for a match on Friday is really exciting. Being seniors, we weren’t ready to end our season here.”
In some ways it has been a frustrating season for the Lightning, who finished second in the Academy League to St. Margaret’s after sharing the title last year. The way it happened hurt, as Sage couldn’t hold 7-1 and 5-1 leads, respectively, in the teams’ two league meetings.
“That was definitely painful losing to St. Margaret’s, but I think it kind of motivated us to really get it together for playoffs,” Ruck said. “Our goal is to get as far as we can and keep a positive attitude the whole time.”
Sage again took a 5-1 lead Wednesday against San Juan Hills (7-10), the Sea View League champion that was making its first postseason appearance in team history. Longoria credited Stallions Coach Lauren Gelgur, who is in her first season in charge at San Juan Hills after playing at JSerra and Whittier College.
Still, Longoria wanted his team to clinch the match early.
“Let’s end it this round,” he yelled to the Lightning players before the second round.
They did so, earning five more set wins to clinch the match with 10 wins. Fishman provided the 10th win, after squeaking out a 7-6 (7-4) victory over San Juan Hills’ top singles player Caylin Duenas.
San Juan Hills’ No. 1 doubles team of Corey Levinson and Tess Smolders swept, accounting for all of the Stallions’ three set wins.
But the Lightning were able to leave as winners, with a day to prepare for Santa Monica (7-3), which shared the Ocean League title with Beverly Hills.
“We’re a pretty balanced team,” Longoria said. “We’re not going to change much. We may switch our doubles people around a little, but I’m pretty satisfied with Jaclyn, Lauren and Isabelle in singles.”
