Mater Dei doubles up Fountain Valley in girls’ tennis season opener

Fountain Valley High girls’ tennis coach Harshul Patel spoke glowingly about the work that had been put in by his team leading up to Tuesday’s season opener.

The confidence is there to match, at least from the Barons’ most experienced member. Hanh Pham, the team’s lethal lefty, addressed her ambitions to bring Fountain Valley its first team league title since 1991.

Healthy for the first time in a while, it was apparent that Pham is set to do her part to deliver on that promise. She blasted through Mater Dei’s lineup for a singles sweep, but it wasn’t enough as the Monarchs came away with a 12-6 victory at Fountain Valley High.

Pham defeated Natasha Hill in the No. 1 singles match, 6-0. She seemed a bit bothered by the heat as the match wore on, but she handled Melanie Villasin, 6-2, before finishing with a 6-3 set win over the consistent Hannah Jervis.

“In the beginning, it was fine,” Pham said. “I was ignoring it. As the matches kept going, it just kept getting worse and worse, and I just kept getting dizzier and dizzier. I tried to drink so much water, but it was just a day of pain.”

The Barons trailed, 9-3, after the second round of play. A Monarchs’ win was practically a foregone conclusion, but Pham felt she had a point to prove. Although she has been a leader on the court in years past, Pham is trying to fulfill a key role as a vocal presence, too.

“Even when we’re losing, we shouldn’t just give up,” the first-time captain said. “I feel like a lot of people on the team, they let one thing get in the way, and they just give up the match.”

“They don’t know that you can change a lot just by putting in a lot more effort. As long as you try and have the mentality that you can win, it can change a lot of things.”

Victoria Nguyen, a senior, jumped into the Barons’ singles lineup for the first time in her high school career. Her only struggles came at the end of the second set, when Jervis’ control allowed her to take the final four games of the middle set to win it, 6-4. The Monarchs won the second round, 5-1.

Nguyen did not drop a game in her other two matches.

The Barons’ top team of Aozora Ito and Sharon Chen were the only doubles pair to notch a win. They did so in their final set of the day, defeating Allie Gernigan and Audrey Muldihill, 6-3.

Mater Dei earned a doubles sweep from Vanessa Islas and Grace McSkimming, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2. Juliette Hill and Caitlin Windross won their matches, 6-3, 6-3.

Natasha Hill, a Newport Beach resident, was a Trinity League doubles champion a year ago. On Tuesday, she found herself playing No. 1 singles in the first match of the season against a good friend. Hill and Pham both train at Advantage Tennis Academy.

Neither player saw the matchup as particularly special. Hill, however, will be making up for lost time on the singles court after missing extended time on the junior tennis circuit with various illnesses.

“I actually didn’t play junior sectionals,” Hill said. “I was going to play it, but over the past couple of months, I had really bad strep throat and mono. I was in the hospital for a week and a half because I had mono, strep and tonsillitis. They finally decided to take my tonsils out after seven times of having strep.”

“Then, I was out for a month. Then, school just started. I just came back to playing tennis. This is like my third week of playing tennis for like two months.”

Mater Dei will host Sage Hill on Wednesday. The Lightning defeated Santa Margarita, 10-8.

Fountain Valley hosts Villa Park on Thursday.

Andrew.Turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner