Laguna dismantles Estancia in league opener
Things couldn’t have gone better for the Laguna Beach High girls’ tennis team in its Orange Coast League opener Tuesday.
The defending champion Breakers had little trouble with visiting Estancia and the score card reflected a dominating performance that netted an 18-0 victory. Coach Don Davis’ squad recorded the shutout despite having two senior players out because of illness (top singles player Lauren Michaels) and injury (doubles player Kate McMahon).
Laguna dropped just six of the 108 games played.
Claire Jaeger won two sets (6-0, 6-0) and Maddy Loomis one set (6-2) at No. 1 singles. Kira Hamilton and Brooke Michaels each won their three sets by 6-0 scores at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.
Sweeps continued in doubles action as No. 1 Sara Nederlander and Bailey Jaeger and No. 2 Chloe Mansour and Katelyn Bo won by 6-0 scores and the No. 3 team of Nicole Doiron and Kate Rogers won 6-2, 6-2, 6-0.
Prior to starting league play, Laguna began the week with a nonleague match against San Clemente and lost, 16-2. The Breakers also suffered nonleague losses to University and Sage Hill, but defeated 2 Edison in a 9-9 match (Laguna won on games, 77-71). In the Edison win, Laguna took six of nine singles sets. Lauren Michaels (No. 1), Claire Jaeger (No. 2) and Hamilton (No. 3) each won two sets and each lost to Edison’s No. 1 player, Sara Stadfeldt.
The match came down to the last round, where Laguna’s No. 2 doubles team of freshman Bailey Jaeger and sophomore Brooke Michaels defeated Edison’s top team of Kim Tieu/Stephanie May, 6-4, to tie the score at 9.
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Girls’ Volleyball
The Breakers began their bid Tuesday for another Orange Coast League championship and took the first step toward that goal by sweeping visiting Estancia, 25-9, 25-10, 25-17 at Dugger Gym. Alyse Wallace Ford racked up 20 kills and Marina Paul and Sammi Harting each had six kills, with Paul getting a team-high 10 digs. Allison Palmer registered 20 assists and Rachele Killian had 10 assists.
Laguna is 41-0 against Estancia in the all-time series.
In previous action, the Breakers finished in a four-way tie with Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach and Mater Dei for fifth place in Division 1 during the weekend at the 32nd annual Dave Mohs Orange County Championships. Los Alamitos repeated as champion by defeating host Edison in Monday’s Division 1 final. The Breakers defeated Centennial/Bakersfield, Murrieta Valley, Orange Lutheran and Yucaipa — the latter in the Round of 16 — to reach the quarterfinals. There, they fell to Los Alamitos, the top-ranked team in CIF Division 1-AA, 25-19, 25-21.
Laguna has three matches in a three-day period next week, starting with a 5:30 p.m. Tuesday league match at Godinez. The Breakers host Vista Murrieta, the fourth-ranked team in CIF Division 1-A, in a 5:15 p.m. nonleague match Wednesday and return to league play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday hosting Costa Mesa.
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Cross-Country
Boys: The Laguna seniors finished in second place and both the juniors and sophomores placed third at the Dana Hills Invitational last Saturday. Jeff White ran 15 minutes 43.3 seconds to place fourth in the senior race.
Other times for Laguna competitors: Tyler Nichols, 16:15.1; Veda Rebollar, 16:27.9 (second-place); Jack Crawford, 16:37.1 (eighth-place); Ryan Jones, (16:42.4); Casey Koprowski, 16:43.9; Stone Riff, 16:52.8; Kevin Tovar, 16:59.3; Mike Lee, 17:11.3; Miguel Jaimes, 17:36.6; Tim Williams, 17:44.1; Tony Davia, 17:47.3; Mitch Kimball, 17:47.4; Mike Santana, 18:08.7; Grant Barton, 18:10.0; Nathan Sweet, 18:10.5; Spencer Donavan, 18:53.9; Vincent Lasislao, 19:18.0; James Cockrell, 19:27.9; Loic Corbiere, 19:36.2; Tim Nguyen, 20:42.1; Joey Gallo, 20:46.7; John Church, 21:21.8; Ethan Schlatter, 21:26.4; Vickram Kahlon, 28:09.0.
Girls: Laguna sophomores Kay Baskevitch and Monica White placed in the top 10 at the Dana Hills Invitational. Baskevitch ran a 19:38 and White a 19:45 to turn in the 26th and 29th all-time fastest times for the girls’ program.
Coach Steve Lalim said that six of the team’s top runners did not run at the invitational. Laguna’s frosh/soph team placed second in its division and returned home with a trophy.
Other times for Laguna competitors: Amanda Ozuna, 20:39; Faith Hale, 21:11; Anya Miller, 21:17; Darby Winson, 21:32; Victoria Gunell, 21:35; Rachel Hunter, 22:35; Rachel Young, 23:32; Julia Nasiell, 23:44; Andrea Gossett, 23:49; Georgia Conti, 25:50; Sylvi Lyster, 26:53; Nadia Demilly-Otteson, 26:59; Perry Nielson, 27:31; Anika Larsen 28:16.
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Girls’ Golf
Last week, Laguna picked up a key Orange Coast League victory over rival Estancia. On Tuesday, the Eagles evened the score.
Laguna suffered its first league loss after Estancia edged the Breakers, 250-252, at Mesa Linda Golf Course (par 35) in Costa Mesa. Cassie Stevenson was medalist (39 score) for the Eagles. She also earned medalist honors last week when Laguna defeated her team, 244-251, at Aliso Viejo Country Club.
Tuesday’s outcome left the teams tied for first place.
Laguna captain Taylor Weiss shot a 42 and was the Breakers’ lowest-scoring player. Laura Kawashiri shot a 49.
“Although both teams are evenly matched, we really let this one get away from us,” Laguna assistant coach Sean Quigley said. “We played a practice match on this course earlier this year, and this team score was quite a bit higher. So overall, this was a tough loss for the girls.
“This year, the team is a good ball-striking team, but they haven’t performed as well around the green as some of our teams in the past. As coaches, we’ll need to get each player to focus on improving their short games and putting if we are going to win the league this year. We gave away a lot of shots around the greens today.”
Laguna hosts Estancia on Tuesday at Ben Brown’s Golf Course and faces Costa Mesa on Wednesday at Mesa Linda Golf Course in Costa Mesa. Tee time for both matches is 2:30 p.m.
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Boys’ Water Polo
The top-ranked Breakers launched their Orange Coast League schedule Wednesday and rolled, as expected, past Sage Hill, 24-3. Jack Dodson and Rian Anderson both scored three goals and Nolan McConnell, Samer Alkateb, Riley Thomas, Maxx McCarter and Grant Nathansan all scored twice as 15 Breakers hit the scoring column.
Laguna on Tuesday took care of El Segundo, defeating the visiting Eagles, 19-9. Thomas led all scorers with four goals and also had two assists and three steals. Nicky Brunner had three goals, an assist and four steals, Dodson had three goals, an assist and a steal and Camron Hauer scored twice with two steals and a team-best five assists. Alkateb scored twice with an assist and two steals and both Tommy Renner and Caleb Scott had two goals and one assist and a steal. Erik Henrikson had 10 saves.
“The guys had a slow start in the first quarter but got the counter-attack going in the second quarter and never looked back,” Coach Ethan Damato said. “We were not happy to give up nine goals and we will be addressing that at (Wednesday’s) practice.
“Overall it was a good effort from the guys, but we know there is still a lot of areas for improvement.”
The Breakers last weekend took seventh place at the South Coast Tournament, which was won by Mater Dei. They scored victories over Granite Hills (16-3), San Clemente (9-2) and Los Alamitos (7-6), which was ranked sixth in Division 1. The losses were to Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in Division 1, 16-10, and Corona del Mar, the top-ranked team in Division 2, 7-5.
“I thought the tournament provided some great challenges for us and we had our highest finish in a long time,” Damato said. “I think we improved and we are where we need to be at this point of the season. “
Laguna plays a nonleague match Tuesday (4 p.m.) at Dana Hills and returns to league play Wednesday for a 3:15 p.m. home match against Estancia.
Twitter: @MikeSciacca