All-Area Doubles Tennis Team of the Year: More sisterly success for La Cañada High’s McKenzies

The name McKenzie has been synonymous with success the past two seasons in the CIF Southern Section Girls’ Tennis Individual Championships.

In 2014, La Cañada High senior Ally McKenzie and sister Cassie, a junior, advanced to the tournament semifinals as the pair came one step away from being just the second Spartans pair to qualify for the finals.

This past season, Cassie was back in the final four, but this time she advanced to the semifinals with younger sister Sophie.

“It’s rare to see two sisters who are that successful in CIF and that are able to get that far,” La Cañada Coach Will Moravec said. “And to have one sister, Cassie, be able to advance to two semifinals in two years with two different sisters is a real accomplishment. That’s pretty rare.”

The accomplishment isn’t lost on Cassie, who also has a younger brother, JP, who plays on the Spartans boys’ team.

“I feel really lucky to be able to play with both of my sisters in doubles in high school,” she said. “And it’s pretty great that both times we were able to make it far in CIF. I get along with both of my sisters and it was a good experience with both of them.

“It’s a little different playing with Ally and Sophie because they’re two different people, but it was fun with both of them and I’m glad I was able to do it.”

Said Sophie: “I saw how Ally and Cassie did before, so I was excited about being able to play with Cassie. We really know each other’s games, so that was kind of an advantage for us.”

For much of the 2015 season, Cassie was La Cañada’s No. 1 singles player and Sophie was No. 2. However, for the Rio Hondo League Tournament, the sisters were teamed up in doubles in an effort to bolster the odds of the pair qualifying for CIF individual competition.

“We did the same thing the previous year with Ally and Cassie,” Moravec said. “That’s because we have San Marino in our league and they usually have very good singles.

“We knew that Cassie and Sophie had played doubles together before, so it wouldn’t be that big of an adjustment for them.”

The pairing worked well, as the McKenzie sisters captured the Rio Hondo League doubles championship and advanced to the CIF semifinals. It was the deepest run of any singles player or doubles teams from the area — just like the previous season.

It is because of those accomplishments that Cassie and Sophie McKenzie were a unanimous selection as the 2015 All-Area Doubles Team of the Year, selected by the sportswriters of the La Cañada Valley Sun, Burbank Leader and Glendale News-Press.

After Ally and Cassie were teamed up in doubles in 2014, the pair went on to claim the league title before embarking on a lengthy run in CIF competition. With those accomplishments serving as a blueprint, Moravec again paired a McKenzie duo this season and unleashed it on league opponents in the annual tournament.

“Last year, Ally was the big sister and she helped Cassie a lot,” Moravec said. “But this year, the roles were kind of reversed. This year, Cassie was the big sister and you could see her helping Sophie along. Although all three sisters have different personalties, in both instances, it was the big sister who would lead the way. And in both instances it worked out fine.”

In the second day of the tournament, the Spartans duo maintained its momentum, besting the San Marino pair of Sophia Lee and Emily Hsiao, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals.

“We knew it was going to be tough in the finals,” Cassie said. “We just needed to play together and try not to make too many mistakes. ...But we knew we could do it.”

The final pitted the McKenzies against Madeleine Gandawidjaja and Libby Chang of San Marino. After the San Marino pair made things tough for the Spartans pair early in the first set, the McKenzies took the final three games to win, 6-3. Again, it was close in the second set, with the La Cañada pair holding a 4-3 lead. However, the McKenzies captured the final two games to win, 6-3, to take the crown.

“It was great to win it,” Sophie said. “I’m just glad that Cassie was able to win it two times in a row.”

Seeded No. 2 for the CIF Southern Section Girls’ Tennis Individual Championships, the McKenzies again had a bye in the first round in late November. The duo then stormed through the next two rounds at the Whittier Narrows Tennis Center in South El Monte, besting Quynh Tran and Vivian Nguyen of La Quinta, 6-1, 6-0, and Sara Smith and McKenna Kirmsse of Alta Loma, 6-1, 6-1.

The victories, coupled with a bye in the round of 32, advanced the McKenzies to what would be their most exciting and thrilling day of the season in the round of 16 on Dec. 2 at the Seal Beach Tennis Center.

There, the sisters avoided an early upset in rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Murrieta Valley pair of Alana Andrews and Faith Pearson.

That comeback, though, was nothing in comparison for what was still in store.

The McKenzies’ story could have easily ended in the quarterfinals, particularly when the girls fell behind, 5-0, in the third set to Campbell Hall’s Dominique Stone and Jay Kim.

Yet, remarkably, the McKenzies survived.

The pair fought off 12 match-points to pull out an amazing 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) victory that advanced Cassie and Sophie to the semifinals, matching what Ally and Cassie had done a season earlier.

That set up a date for the McKenzies in the semifinals Dec. 3 at the Seal Beach Tennis Center.

“I was really nervous coming into that match,” Sophie said. “Cassie had been there before but I hadn’t, so it was new to me.”

Unfortunately for the Spartans tandem, it couldn’t punch its ticket to the final, falling to Harvard-Westlake’s Jenna Mustafa and Julian Simon, 6-3, 6-0.

“It wasn’t disappointing that we lost, or even that I lost for the second straight time,” Cassie said. “But what bothered me is that I really didn’t play that [well] in the match. I think I should have played a lot better than I did.”

In their brief stint as a team, that was the McKenzies’ only loss, as they finished 8-1.

With Cassie weighing her options of playing on the collegiate level next year, that will leave Sophie as the lone McKenzie on the girls’ team.

“I have watched both of my sisters over the years and I’ve learned a lot from them,” Sophie said. “I just hope I’m able to be as successful as they were.”

After her accomplishments as a freshman, Sophie is well on her way.