Lightning fall a bit short
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CLAREMONT — Sage Hill School Coach A.G. Longoria knew it would be a battle of the Lightning’s strong doubles play against the stellar singles play of Valencia.
But Valencia’s singles players proved too strong, and Sage Hill lost, 10-8, in the CIF Southern Section Division IV championship match on Monday at The Claremont Club.
Valencia (24-1), the second seed, took seven of nine singles sets, which just more than made up for Sage Hill (23-2), the top seed, taking six of nine doubles sets.
But for the Lightning, there was still a positive vibe after the match. A year after winning the Division V title, Sage Hill moved up a division and still advanced to the championship match.
“Obviously, you’d like to win,” said Lightning senior Salen Andrews, who teamed with Carissa Cummings to win two of three sets on the day. “At the same time, becoming the runner-up in a new division is still pretty impressive. We were really close today; we almost had it.”
Sage Hill was up 4-2 after a round, getting a singles win from Ashley Adams and doubles wins from all three teams of Cummings and Andrews, Alle Hsu and Jaclyn Smrecek, and Erica Spivack and Brina Dokich.
“That was our plan for the first round,” Longoria said, “to get four points.”
The Lightning went on to lose five of six sets in the second round, falling behind 7-5 with just six sets left to play.
“We were hoping to tire them out in the first round,” said senior singles player Sarah Geocaris. “I think we were going all out in the first round. We knew it was going to be tough, and in the end it would be really close. We just wanted to do our best today; I’m so impressed with how everyone played.”
Valencia hung tough, taking two of the final three singles matches and another doubles match to clinch the victory. Geocaris nearly fought back from a 3-0 deficit in her final match, against Valencia No. 1 Stephanie Hammel, pulling within 4-3 before dropping the final two games.
“We had two singles wins [in the match], which is what we wanted to do,” Longoria said. “We just had one more doubles loss than we could afford. But I’m so proud of this team.”
The starting seniors of Hsu, Cummings, Andrews, Geocaris, Erica Spivack and Stephanie Langer leave a pretty prominent mark on Sage Hill girls’ tennis. In the last four years, Sage has two narrow, 10-8, semifinal losses and a section championship (all in Division V) to go along with Monday’s runner-up finish.
“They leave quite a legacy,” Longoria said. “We’re very proud of that. We were just honored that we were ranked No. 1 [in Division IV] all year, but you still have to execute.”
Hsu and Smrecek won the Academy League doubles championship, and they swept at No. 1 doubles against Valencia.
Hsu said that as a senior, she walks away proud.
“For a lot of the seniors, we’ve all had two semifinals, one championship and a runner-up,” she said. “That’s a lot to be proud of. Yeah, we’re disappointed now, but I think when we look back five years from now, we’ll remember how well we played.”
CIF Division IV
Championship
Valencia 10, Sage Hill 8
Singles -- Langer (SH) lost to Hammel, 1-6, lost to Blair, 3-6, lost to Wu, 2-6; Adams (SH) lost, 0-6, 3-6, won, 6-2; Geocaris (SH) lost, 3-6, 1-6, won, 6-4.
Doubles -- Hsu-Smrecek (SH) def. McKay-Tran, 7-5, def. Nguyen-Pham, 6-1, def. Tsu-Pai, 6-2; Cummings-Andrews (SH) lost, 3-6, won, 6-1, 6-3; Spivack-Dokich (SH) lost, 1-6, 4-6, won, 6-0.
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