CdM’s Northrup falls in round of 64

SEAL BEACH — Shaya Northrup had never played the Southern California Junior Sectionals tennis tournament, but that changed this year.

Northrup, who will be a junior at Corona del Mar High, made the tournament a priority.

“Every year it’s been during school, since CdM gets out so late,” she said. “I’ve never really wanted to miss school for it. But this year upcoming is my junior year, and that’s the most important for tennis. I just moved my finals and accommodated with my teachers, and I was able to play it.”

Northrup battled through qualifying last weekend to make the main draw in the girls’ 16s. And, though she lost there Wednesday to Courtney Swift of Laguna Niguel, 6-4, 6-1, in a round of 64 match at Seal Beach Tennis Center, she remains happy with the tennis she is playing.

Northrup knew Swift, an incoming junior at Dana Hills High, would be a tough match. The two players train together at Advantage Tennis Academy in Irvine. In high school tennis, Swift is the top singles player at Dana Hills.

Northrup rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the first set to take a 4-3 lead. But from there, Swift played better to grab the set.

“Courtney hits a really good ball if it’s in her strike zone,” Northrup said. “I was trying to mix it up, so that it wasn’t in that spot that she wanted to hit it in. [I used] slicing and lobs, hitting it to the corners. I just needed to execute a little bit better. When I got the short balls that I wanted, I needed to put them in, instead of over-hitting.”

Swift again took a 3-1 lead in the second set, before Northrup had several break point chances in the fifth game of the set. But Swift stayed steady, managing to hold. Two games later, she had won the match.

“I knew there would be a big difference between 3-2 and 4-1,” said Swift, who will play top-seeded Amanda Chan of Pasadena in the round of 32 on Thursday. “I really wanted to close it out.”

Northrup is scheduled to play Isabelle Lau of Manhattan Beach in a consolation match on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. at El Dorado Park in Long Beach. She hopes that Junior Sectionals will be just the beginning of a big summer, which will lead into her again being a key member of the CdM girls’ tennis team this fall.

In terms of her tournament tennis, she also has goals.

“By the end of my junior year, I want to be a four-star [recruit],” said Northrup, who is currently a two-star recruit on tennisrecruiting.net. “I want to train really hard this year to reach my goal.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo