BREAKERS ROUNDUP: Girls’ tennis on its way

The Laguna Beach girls’ tennis team moved its way toward a possible third consecutive Orange Coast League title Tuesday by handling visiting Calvary Chapel, 17-1.

Maddie Jaeger, Haley Moss, Claire Jaeger and Lauren Mendoza dominated singles play and lost only one set. In doubles play, the teams of Lauren Michaels/Megan Moss, Megan Marolf/Megan Moss, Heather Tran/McKenna Nokes and Alison Azera/Bianca Sganga, swept all nine of their sets.

Azera and Sganga lost just five games as Laguna improved to 6-0 in league and 15-4 overall.

The Breakers play at second-place Estancia on Tuesday, step out of league play Wednesday to host Corona del Mar and return to league action Thursday at home against Costa Mesa to end the regular season.

Prior to beating Calvary Chapel, Laguna split a pair of nonleague matches against tough programs.

On Monday, the Breakers took care of Mater Dei, beating the Monarchs, 12-6. Maddie Jaeger swept at No. 1 singles (6-1, 6-1, 6-0) while No. 2 Haley Moss and No. 3 Claire Jaeger each won two of three.

The doubles teams of Lauren Michaels/Lauren Mendoza and McKenna Nokes/Alison Azera each also won two of three.

In a nonleague match pitting two Division I top 10 teams, fourth-ranked University took an 11-7 victory from No. 8 Laguna.

The Breakers had been hit by the flu bug before the match and lost No. 3 singles player Haley Moss and had to mix up their doubles line up. Laguna’s top singles players, No. 1 Alex Tachovsky and No. 2 Maddie Jaeger, won five of six matches with Tachovsky earning a sweep (6-3, 6-0, 6-2).

Laguna also was an 18-0 winner over host Godinez in an Oct. 16 league match. The Breakers had the opportunity to have several subs gain valuable playing time. Lauren Mendoza (6-2) and Megan Marolf (6-2, 6-3) both won in singles and Haley Moss/Lauren Michaels won 6-1, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 1 doubles in just their second time playing as a team.

The key player in the match was Claire Jaeger who, normally a doubles specialist for the Breakers, has moved into and has played well in singles action.

Claire Jaeger earned a sweep by scores of 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, as did Maddie Jaeger at No. 1 singles.

? Boys’ Water Polo

Laguna, ranked fourth in Division III, scored a 9-4 nonleague win Monday at Aliso Niguel. Nolan McConnell scored three goals and had two assists and a pair of steals for the Breakers. Preston Head scored twice and had three steals, David Brunner scored twice with a steal Robert Chew had a goal and assisted two other scores, Brett Thompson had a goal, an assist and two steals, Victor Alcone came up with three steals. Erik Henrikson had 11 saves.

The win over Aliso Niguel allowed the Breakers to bounce back from an 11-3 defeat last Saturday at Newport Harbor. The Sailors, ranked No. 1 in Division I, led, 5-0, after the first quarter. Alcone scored all three goals for the Breakers and also had a big game defensively with six steals. Henrikson finished with 10 saves. Laguna plays a noon nonleague match at Redlands on Saturday. The Terriers are ranked fifth in Division III.

? Girls’ Volleyball

Laguna ran its record to 4-0 in Orange Coast League competition Tuesday with an easy sweep of host Costa Mesa, 25-11, 25-11, 25-8.

Thirteen Breakers saw action and Piper Obradovich and Paulette Grand Pre each had eight kills and Alex Rieckhoff finished with seven kills. Alexandra Palmer had 28 assists.

Laguna (17-8 overall) now leads the best-of-five match series, 41-1, but has never lost on the court to the Mustangs, whose lone victory came virtue of a forfeit.

On Oct. 16, the Breakers won their third league match by defeating visiting Estancia, 25-12, 25-17, 25-10. Grand Pre had 22 kills, Obradovich 13 kills and Palmer 42 assists.

Laguna returns to the court Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. home league match against Calvary Chapel.

? Cross-Country

Laguna teams competed at the Orange County Invitational Saturday at Irvine Park although the Breakers weren’t at full-strength.

Boys’ Coach Dave Brobeck did not run a complete team at the event with only “about half” the kids in the program competing.

“Many of them did not compete due to minor injuries; several did not compete because I would rather have them do a mileage training day instead,” he said. “(The) OC Invite is not a critical race for us. It comes during a big training load week. This is also a time in the season when I like to give my big guns a racing rest.”

Matt Neev, Tommy Newton-Neal, Blake Hofmeister and Andrew Shapero did not race. One runner among Laguna’s top five, Casey Finnerty did race and “did well,” Brobeck said, finishing the three-mile course in a time of 15 minutes 58 seconds. The time earned Finnerty an 18th-place finish in the Division II race.

“I ran a few other guys up from JV at the varsity level, as well” Brobeck said. “My objective is to get 10 very competitive varsity-caliber runners that I can draw from, for our surge through CIF.”