Sailors send their best

Two doubles teams and one singles player from Newport Harbor advance to semifinals of the Sea View League tournamentIRVINE -- Newport Harbor High played like its namesake, sailing through the first three rounds of the Sea View League girls’ tennis tournament Wednesday at Woodbridge High.

The Sailors won seven of their 10 sets on the day. In doubles, two teams advanced to play in today’s semifinals.

An additional Newport Harbor singles player, either Brittanny Sturgess or Jill Casserly, will be in the semifinals once the match between the teammates is concluded. Their match was halted because of darkness.

The doubles team of Chrissy Schwartz and Sasha Dunlap were impressive, losing five games in their two sets. The duo improved its record to 25-2 for the season.

Schwartz and Dunlap cruised to an 8-2 win over Laguna Hills’ Melissa Johnson and Chelsea Halberman. The duo followed it up with another victory over a Laguna Hills team, this time beating Chelsea Bator and Lindsey Parisch, 6-2, 6-1.

“They played very well today,” Newport Harbor coach Fletcher Olson said. “Chrissy and Sasha are a very successful team. They have been all year.”

The team of Megan McKay and Alex McIntosh advanced to the semifinals with a pair of easy wins 6-0, 6-4, in the best-of-three format.

In her opening match, Casserly rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win, 8-1, over Irvine’s Marisa Takeuchi.

In the last quarterfinals match of the day, Sturgess won the first set, 6-4, but was trailing, 3-4, in the second set when the match was stopped.

Olson said she wasn’t bothered about the two Sailors facing off.

“It’s inevitable, when you have three players in the draw,” Olson said.

In singles, Carly Adams reached the quarterfinals before losing in straight sets to Aliso Niguel’s Emily Wu. Teammate Natalie Small was ousted in the first round.

Newport Harbor’s duo of Melissa Chinn and Brittany Cluck won its first doubles match, but lost to Foothill’s Natalie Ducker and Becky Duesler, 6-0, 6-4.

The semifinals are scheduled for 12:30 p.m., followed by the finals and third-place games.

SEA VIEW LEAGUE TENNIS TOURNAMENT

First Round

Singles: Natalie Small (NH) lost to Schmidt (Irv), 8-6.

Second Round

Singles: Brittanny Sturgess (NH) def. Bui (AN), 8-2; Jill Casserly (NH) def. Takeuchi (Irv), 8-1; Carly Adams (NH) def. Cook-Tackett (Foot), 8-2.

Doubles: Melissa Chinn-Brittany Cluck (NH) def. Bennett-Wong (AN), 8-0; Alex McIntosh-Megan McKay (NH) def. Cao-Pham (Irv), 8-1; Sasha Dunlap-Chrissy Schwartz (NH) def. Johnson-Halberman (LH), 8-2.

Quarterfinals

Singles: Adams (NH) lost to Wu (AN), 6-4, 6-0; Sturgess (NH) led Casserly (NH), 6-4, 3-4, postponed due to darkness.

Doubles: Chinn-Cluck (NH) lost to Ducker-Duesler (Foot), 6-0, 6-4; McIntosh-McKay (NH) def. Davey-Adams (AN), 6-0, 6-4; Dunlap-Schwartz (NH) def. Betor-Parisch (LH), 6-2, 6-1.

20051103ipd4f7knDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Newport Harbor’s Carly Adams steps into a backhand at midcourt for a winner in her second match at the Sea View League tournament.