La Cañada’s McKenzie sisters reign at Rio Hondo League tennis championships

For a third straight year, the La Cañada High girls’ tennis team claimed a championship at the Rio Hondo League finals at Live Oak Park on Thursday afternoon.

Perhaps to no surprise, it was a pair of McKenzie sisters leading the way.

The senior-freshman sister duo of Cassie and Sophie McKenzie fought off the sun and wind as well as strong competition from San Marino’s Madeleine Gandawidjaja and Libby Chang for a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the doubles final.

PHOTOS: McKenzie sisters lead La Cañada to Rio Hondo League championship

The victory marked the second league doubles championship for Cassie McKenzie, who teamed with older sister Ally McKenzie for the 2014 crown. Ally McKenzie also captured her school a rare Rio Hondo League singles title in 2013.

“Keeping a good rally cross-court and poaching when necessary was really working for us today,” said Cassie McKenzie, who as a sophomore finished third in the league doubles tournament with Sharyse Watanabe in 2013. “I think we also had too much poaching that hurt us, but we won and I’m happy with that.”

Both sets had a similar feel with the La Cañada and San Marino’s squads trading points early before the McKenzies pulled away late.

In the first set, a back-and-forth affair broke when San Marino committed a rare double fault with the McKenzies leading, 40-30. The error gave La Cañada’s duo a 4-3 advantage that it did not relinquish in winning the last two games and the set, 6-3.

“I don’t think that either side played that well, to be honest,” Cassie McKenzie said. “I really think it was about who choked less, I guess. I think we both could have played a lot better.”

Part of the challenge Thursday was the climate at Live Oak Park’s outdoor courts as a 90-degree sun was in the face of both teams, but more so on the squad playing on the northern side of the court.

There was also a break midway through the second set when a swirling dust devil formed between the championship and third-place doubles matches.

Despite those obstacles, the second set saw the McKenzies take a 1-0 lead that changed to 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 before the Spartans again made a run.

This time, it was Sophie McKenzie with two back-row smashes that secured her side a 5-3 advantage and an eventual 6-3 win.

“For me, the biggest challenge was just keeping the ball in play,” Sophie McKenzie said. “When San Marino made a run, they made some good shots, but we also made mistakes. It’s nice that the mistakes didn’t kill us.”

The McKenzies began the day by defeating another San Marino pair, Sophia Lee and Emily Hsiao, by a 6-1, 6-0 score in the semifinal.

Gandawidjaja and Chang punched their ticket around the same time by besting Temple City’s Sandra Ngo and Morgan Leong, 6-0, 6-2.

On the singles side, San Marino’s Devon Jack was a beast in winning her second consecutive Rio Hondo League singles title.

Jack defeated Temple City’s Katherine Wu, 6-0, 6-0, in the title bout after commencing with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over South Pasadena’s Molly Round in the semifinals.

Up next for La Cañada, the Spartans will prepare for the CIF Southern Section Division I team playoffs as the postseason pairing will be released Monday.

With the championship win, the McKenzie sisters earned a berth to the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament, slated to start Nov. 23 at five different sites.

“The individual stuff is great and the McKenzies are a pleasure to coach and great to have on the team,” La Cañada Coach Will Moravec said. “It’s fun to make it to the postseason, to make it to the dance and to have another good year.”

--

Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com

Twitter: @campadresports