Girls’ Tennis: Peninsula has CdM’s number
Doubt seemed to cloud expectations for the Corona del Mar High girls’ tennis team as the season began.
The Sea Kings were coming off a CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinal appearance in 2013. Yet, they lost top players like Kenzie Purcifull, Kimmia Naaseh and Lauren Thaxter to graduation.
“At the start of the year, we lost our whole No. 1 doubles team and our No. 1 singles player,” CdM senior co-captain Riley Gerdau said. “All of us thought that it was going to be kind of like my freshman year again, a re-do of that. But then we stayed together as a team. We worked really hard to get where we are now.”
The Sea Kings indeed went far above a repeat of the 2011 season, which saw them finish fourth in the Pacific Coast League and miss the CIF playoffs. They finished a strong second in league this year. On Wednesday afternoon, they found themselves back in the Division 1 semifinals.
Yet again, though, defending champion Palos Verdes Peninsula proved just too good.
The top-seeded Panthers eliminated the No. 4-seeded Sea Kings for the second straight year and by the same score, 15-3. Peninsula (21-0) moves on to face No. 2-seeded University in the title match for the second straight year.
University topped Santa Barbara, 12-6, in another semifinal Wednesday. The Panthers and Trojans will meet for the title Friday at 11:30 a.m. at The Claremont Club.
Peninsula, going for its second straight unbeaten season, remains a big favorite to repeat as champions. It’s easy to see why when looking at the Panthers’ singles lineup.
The numbers don’t lie. Junior Ena Shibahara, last year’s CIF Individuals singles champion, is ranked No. 3 in the nation in the girls’ 18s. Senior Kenadi Hance is a University of Washington commit, while freshman Ryan Peus is ranked No. 3 in the country in the 16s.
Shibahara and Peus easily swept Wednesday, while Hance won twice before being subbed out. All of the set scores ranged from 6-0 to 6-2.
“This is one of the best singles lineups I’ve seen,” said CdM Coach Brian Ricker, whose team also lost at Peninsula by the same 15-3 score in a nonleague match in September. “Definitely, in all of the [14] years that I’ve been [coaching at Laguna Beach and CdM], this is certainly in the top five [teams].
“I think we had a great season. There’s two teams that are just too talented for us, Uni and Peninsula, and we still managed to make the semifinals. We had the two close losses [to Los Alamitos and Santa Barbara] early in the season, but we definitely finished the season on a strong note. Rather than let the two 8-10 [matches] get us down, we actually played better after that.”
CdM trailed 5-1 after the first round, and Peninsula had the match clinched with a 10-2 advantage after two rounds. From there, Peninsula Coach Mike Hoeger made only one substitution in the third round, taking out Hance.
So it is, when you have a team that usually clinches a win after the second round.
“I need to get them used to playing [three rounds] for the finals,” Hoeger said. “We’re not rubbing it in. We just need to practice.”
Georgetown commit Risa Nakagawa and Sara Khattab, who were CIF Individuals doubles finalists a year ago, swept for Peninsula at No. 1 doubles. The Sea Kings did manage to win three sets against Peninsula starters.
Gerdau and Siena Sharf won twice at No. 1 doubles, including a 6-4 victory over the visitors’ No. 2 team, Tia Elpusan and Sarina Liu. Elpusan and Liu had defeated Gerdau and Sharf, 7-5, earlier this season. Ricker said that Wednesday’s win should help Gerdau and Sharf’s seeding for the upcoming CIF Individuals tournament.
Shelby Anderson and Erica Chen also rallied to take a set at No. 3 doubles, 7-6 (7-3), over Alana Roth and Mina Sung in the first round.
The season is not over for CdM, which has qualified for the CIF USTA Southern Regional Championships. The brackets should be released this weekend, with first-round matches on Tuesday. CdM will more than likely have to start the tournament on the road.
There, as they have done throughout the season, Ricker expects his players to continue to fight. Monday’s 11-7 CIF quarterfinal win over Campbell Hall on the road was a good example of that.
“Our girls compete well, and I don’t have to talk to them about that, I don’t have to lecture them about that,” he said. “That’s just their natural personality. I think we have girls that would succeed in other sports, if they weren’t tennis players. They’re natural athletes, and they’re good competitors. Giving up is not in their nature.”
