Willson loses in quarters
SEAL BEACH — Nobody could say that Danielle Willson isn’t a tough competitor after three long matches in the CIF Southern Section Individuals girls’ tennis tournament.
They spanned nearly eight total hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. And in the end, the Corona del Mar High junior was able to show her improvement despite losing to Rachel Wagner of Campbell Hall, 6-4, 6-3, in a singles quarterfinal match Wednesday evening at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
The match finished under the lights. And, though Willson was disappointed not to move on to Thursday’s semifinals and a shot at top-seeded Christie Wan of Sunny Hills, she had to be happy with making the CIF Individuals quarterfinals for the first time. As a freshman she lost in the round of 32, and she fell in the round of 16 last year.
Willson also was pleased after pulling out a remarkable 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-0 upset win over No. 4-seeded Emilee Duong of Valencia of Placentia in the round of 16 earlier Wednesday. That match took three hours by itself.
Other CdM players fell in the round of 16. Cal-bound senior Jasie Dunk lost to No. 3-seeded Anessa Lee of San Marino, 6-2, 6-1. In doubles, CdM’s Camellia Edalat and Brooke Kenerson lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Izzy Oedekerk and Elise Talley of St. Margaret’s.
Willson definitely had to earn her round of 16 win over Duong, after rallying from a 5-3 deficit in the second set to win it 7-5.
“It was a pretty intense match,” Willson said. “[Tuesday] night, for some reason, my brain told me I was going to play her. I think it gave me a lot of confidence. Going into it, I didn’t know I was going to come out with the win, but I think the main thing was keeping my composure.”
Duong lost hers in the third set after falling behind 3-0. In tears, she appeared that she was going to retire from the match, before the referee and her coach convinced her to keep playing. But Willson closed out the match to book her first quarterfinal appearance.
“She was down 7-6, 4-1,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said. “And at another point [in the second set] it was 5-3, 30-15. She’s two points away from losing that, and she just found a way to hang in there and make her opponent make a few errors. But also, Danielle stepped up her level and didn’t back down from the occasion. She basically won that match with her mental toughness and resiliency.”
Willson rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the first set against Wagner with three straight games, but ended up dropping the set. In the second set, she took leads of 2-1 and 3-2, but was unable to consolidate her breaks of serve. This time, it was Wagner, a lefty, who won the last four games to close out the match.
“I’m really impressed with how she fought,” Gresh said. “You know, Danielle never makes an excuse. She’s not going to say, ‘I was really tired,’ or, ‘I had a hard draw and a lot of three-setters.’ She’s not going to do that, so I’m not going to do that for her. She’s a great player, a great competitor, and I think her maturity and mental toughness got her through a lot of clutch matches.
“I think Wagner upped her game a little bit, and Danielle’s serving percentage dropped down a little bit. We tried spinning some serves in, and the rallies got long. Then we tried a little bit of her being more aggressive on the next game, but when you miss those big first serves, you’re playing a lot of points from a second serve situation. Credit to Wagner for getting down a break twice and turning it around ... A lot of the returns she was making were deep. She kind of neutralized Danielle’s serve, and that’s why it was tough to consolidate that break.”
Willson said she was both mentally and physically tired after play concluded. She also played four singles and one doubles match last weekend at a national-level tournament in Irvine.
“She didn’t give away anything, so it was kind of hard to step up and get ahead,” Willson said. “I couldn’t win my serve, so I had to rely on breaking her serve every time, which is not going to happen.”
Dunk, meanwhile, was hanging with No. 3-seeded Lee with a 2-1 lead early in the first set. But that was before Lee won 10 straight games.
“I broke my string, and I was really [upset] about that,” Dunk said. “My strings were really loose, and I was liking that. I switched to my other [racquet], and [the strings were] very tight. It took me a couple of games to get in the rhythm with that. Everything was just flying on me, and that definitely didn’t help.
“I thought it was a fun match. I didn’t play as smart as I could have. She had good ground strokes, but the way I was going to beat her was at the net, and I don’t think I executed as well as I could have at the net or with my slices. She didn’t miss, and she was passing really well, so my approach [shot] had to be perfect.”
Edalat and Kenerson were “bageled” in their first set against St. Margaret’s for the first time this season, and they had trouble using their normal poaching strategy. But they stayed to watch Willson’s marathon match against Duong, as did Dunk. CdM seniors Izzy Dajee and Kayden Fogarty also showed up to watch the action.
“It just shows we care, and it’s fun to see that,” Kenerson said. “I know a lot of girls [play] to fill their sport requirement, but not with this team. That’s not what we’re about. It’s a lot more than that to us. We look forward to practice, we look forward to our matches and it’s sad that it’s over.”
Gresh said that kind of friendship was indicative of the season as a whole, in which the Sea Kings were top-ranked in Division 1 for most of the year and earned Division 1 and SoCal Regional semifinals appearances.
“The season as a whole, speaking to the 15 girls that were on the team this year, was a very positive experience for them and for myself as well,” he said. “I’m excited for the future to come. This will be a year you’ll reflect back on years down the road and have a lot of positive memories. Not just memories of wins and losses, but memories of bus trips and just the camaraderie that the girls had. I think that was evident today.”
