Damion’s return not enough

Star singles player, still not fully recovered from a torn rotator cuff, tried to give Sea Kings a boost in the CIF Division I semifinals.ROLLING HILLS ESTATES -- Jill Damion gave it a shot.

The junior phenom, still not fully recovered from a shoulder injury, gave it a go in doubles for Corona del Mar’s girls’ tennis team on Thursday.

But Damion and her partner, Lindsey Norman, dropped their sets in the first two rounds of the CIF Southern Section Division I semifinals, and No. 4 seed Corona del Mar (20-4) fell to No. 1 seed Peninsula, 12-6.

It marked the second straight season Corona del Mar’s season ended in the semifinals.

Damion was slated to be the Corona del Mar High girls’ tennis team’s No. 1 singles player going into the season. But a magnetic resonance imaging scan a month before the season started revealed Damion had a slight tear in the rotator cuff in her right shoulder.

As a result, she missed the entire season -- until Thursday.

Damion was hoping to give the Sea Kings the boost it needed against a Peninsula team that beat them, 14-4, earlier this season. But she couldn’t fully extend her right arm and shoulder and had to serve underhanded.

“It was harder that I thought it would be,” Damion said. “I’ve only been hitting like 15 minutes a day -- I wasn’t really ready.”

After Norman and Damion dropped a 6-4 set, Corona del Mar was in a 4-0 hole in the first round.

But the Sea Kings’ No. 3s came through to prevent a blowout. CdM’s freshman doubles team of Lindsay Zotovich and Danielle Kaiden pulled out a 7-5 victory over Peninsula’s Kierska Skinhauer and Jenna Glimp, and freshman Flora Lee won, 6-3. The Sea Kings trailed 4-2 after one round.

Miranda and Haley Young, who dropped their first set, came back to win their next two, 6-4, 6-4. But the Young sisters were the only ones to earn two points for the Sea Kings.

Singles players Michelle Atkins, Rachael Miller and Flora Lee all took one of three sets for the Sea Kings.

Peninsula singles stars Tania Mahtani and Rika Tatsuno swept their sets. Mahtani improved to 43-5 this season and Tatsuno moved to 49-6.

Peninsula won each round, 4-2, taking six of nine doubles sets and six of nine singles sets.

“We had to be able to beat their No. 3 singles player and play well in doubles,” Corona del Mar Coach Brian Ricker said. “We beat their No. 3 singles player, but we lost a lot of 6-4s in doubles.”

Corona del Mar dropped five doubles sets by the score of 6-4, including Damion and Norman’s second-round loss. Damion was strong at the net and even managed a couple of aces with her underhand serve.

“It probably gave them a little boost having Damion back,” Peninsula Coach Tom Cox said. “If they win a couple more of those 6-4 sets, it could have been a little different.”

But Damion’s surprise appearance wasn’t enough.

“Peninsula wasn’t expecting me to play,” Damion said. “I was hoping to help out, but it didn’t work so much.”

Peninsula (27-1) moves to the CIF finals for the 14th time in 15 years. The only time Peninsula didn’t reach the finals is when CdM beat them in the quarterfinals in 2002.

It was a stellar season for Corona del Mar, considering it lost its top two singles players -- Damion (rotator cuff) and Ali Walters (personal reasons) -- for most of the season.

“We lost our top two singles players, so for us to finish 20-4 under those circumstances is a great year for us,” Ricker said.

CIF Southern Section

Division I Playoffs

Semifinals

Peninsula 12, Corona del Mar 6

Singles -- Atkins (CdM) lost to Mahtani, 6-1, lost to Tatsuno, 6-1, def. Tam, 6-1; Miller (CdM) lost 6-0, 6-1, won 6-3; Lee (CdM) lost 6-2, 6-1, won 6-3.

Doubles -- H. Young-M. Young (CdM) lost to Aston-Chen, 6-2, def. Kitamura-Chang, 6-4, def. Skinhauer-Glimp, 6-4; Damion-Norman (CdM), lost 6-4, 6-4; Damion-McKitterick (CdM), lost, 6-4; Kaiden-Zotovich (CdM), lost, 6-4, 6-4, won 7-5.

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