Girls’ Tennis: CdM’s Dunk wins league
IRVINE — For a while on Thursday afternoon, it seemed like the singles and doubles championship matches at the Pacific Coast League girls’ tennis tournament would both be all-Corona del Mar affairs.
That didn’t quite materialize, but it shows just how dominant the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 1 has been this season.
“It was cool to look around and every court had a CdM person on it,” CdM junior Brooke Kenerson said.
Corona del Mar senior Jasie Dunk edged junior teammate Danielle Willson, 8-7 (7-5), to capture the league singles title at Woodbridge High. University’s Halla Alajeely and Ashlyn Wang topped Kenerson and CdM senior Camellia Edalat, 8-3, to win the doubles crown.
All finalists advance to the CIF Individuals tournament, which begins with the preliminary rounds on Nov. 21.
The CdM sophomore doubles team of Shaya Northrup and Roxy MacKenzie lost to Alajeely and Wang, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals before beating University’s Kayla Agustin and Sasha Iraniha, 8-6, in the third-place match.
Dunk and Willson have been singles anchors all year for the Sea Kings. But Dunk had an unlikely win in the final, rallying from a 6-2 deficit to tie the score at 6-6. Serving at 6-7, she saved three match points to force the tiebreaker.
“I just wanted to practice being aggressive,” said Dunk, who edged Ashley Teng of Beckman, 7-5, 6-4, in the semifinals. “[Willson] hitting with me, she has such great ground strokes and I wasn’t running well, I was too tired. So I kind of just thought, ‘OK, you basically have a practice match right now, so just practice what you’ve been working on.’ That’s hitting to the corners and coming in and putting volleys away, because that’s how I like to play. And I started returning a lot more aggressively.”
Dunk took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but Willson rallied to 5-5 before Dunk responded. Her big serve out wide created an easy volley at the net, earning her first match point. She converted it with a winning overhead.
The Cal-bound Dunk, who won the league doubles title last year with graduate Siena Sharf and advanced to the CIF Individuals quarterfinals, said it was “crazy” to win the league singles title. She has been playing in United States Tennis Assn. tournaments for less than two years.
Willson beat last year’s league singles champion, Kerisa Lin of Northwood, 6-0, 6-3, in the semifinals. She was disappointed after losing in the league singles title match for the third straight year, but another way to look at that is that she has advanced to CIF Individuals for the third straight season, not an easy task coming out of the Pacific Coast League.
“[Dunk and I] are both really competitive and we both really wanted to win that [final],” Willson said. “It’s harder to play against a teammate, but I’ve always been told that you’re not really their friend out there on the court, you’re out there to play your game and win. I mean, I love Jasie, she’s a great person, and it was a great win for her and a good comeback.”
Edalat and Kenerson, the top-seeded team, beat University’s Agustin and Iraniha, 6-0, 6-4, in the doubles semifinals. But they found it tough to beat another Trojans doubles team in the final. Alajeely and Wang won it, rallying from an early 2-0 deficit.
“It’s hard, because we wanted to make CIF,” Kenerson said. “That was the goal and we did it [by winning the semifinal match]. I always play better when there’s something at stake, and obviously there was [in the final], but our goal was CIF and we’ve been talking about that all year. Honestly, after that I was so relieved and I wasn’t really worried about the next match.”
Edalat, who had her 17th birthday on Thursday, also had to be satisfied. She finished a round away from the CIF Individuals last season after losing in the league doubles semifinals with graduate Erica Chen.
“It feels so amazing,” Edalat said. “Just the fact that we made it and it’s my senior year, that makes my year that much better. The fact that it happened on my birthday, that’s icing on the cake.”
With the CIF Individuals more than three weeks away, CdM can now turn its attention to the Division 1 team playoffs. The undefeated Sea Kings, who won their second straight league title this year, expect to earn the No. 1 seed for CIF.
The playoff draw will be released Monday, with first-round matches on Wednesday. CdM Coach Jamie Gresh could only view the competitive spirit that Dunk and Willson showed in the league singles final as a great sign.
“They’re both playing better and better as the season has gone along,” Gresh said. “We’re going to need that as a team in the playoffs, to have two top girls in our lineup who can sweep against high-quality playoff teams.”
