Crescenta Valley girls’ tennis no match for Arcadia

LA CRESCENTA — Bad news for the rest of the girls’ tennis teams in the Pacific League: Arcadia’s squad might be better than last year’s undefeated league team.

That’s because the Apaches have incorporated nine freshmen in their lineup.

Crescenta Valley had a chance to see how good the Apaches’ freshmen were during Wednesday’s league match at CV.

The Falcons won just 16 games in a 17-1 loss that improved Arcadia’s record to 3-0, 2-0 in league and dropped CV’s mark to 2-3, 1-1.

“I’m speechless,” said Falcon No. 2 singles player Marie Arutyunyan, who picked up her team’s lone victory with a 6-2 triumph against Kelly Chang, an Arcadia substitute player in the third round of sets. “I was really scared to play today. I didn’t think that I would win one game the entire day.

“They know where to hit it, they know when to hit it and they never miss.”

Arutyunyan and her teammates were impressed with one Arcadia player in particular: Michelle Deng.

The freshman, who is ranked 43rd in the nation and 12th in the state in the Babolat Recruiting List, showed her skills Wednesday with a pair of 6-0 victories before she gave way to a freshman teammate who tallied a 6-2 win.

Arcadia’s No. 2 singles player, Angela Qiu, is also a freshman and she did not surrender a game in her three victories.

“It’s good to have good players who play in tournaments,” Arcadia Coach Bo Win Tin said. “They don’t need that much coaching from me. They have their own private coaches.”

Of Arcadia’s six starters in doubles, two of them were freshmen, two were sophomores and the other two were seniors. Arcadia’s doubles combined to allow just six games.

One of Arcadia’s other stars, Lauren Ko, a freshman, served as a substitute and played just one set in doubles because of an injury. Ko is ranked 46th in the nation and 14th in the state by Babolat.

“Arcadia has dedicated and committed players,” said CV Coach Sam Hyun, whose team dropped 16-2 and 12-6 decisions against Arcadia last year. “Every year we try hard to compete against them. My goal is to motivate my team to try hard and to get the best out of Arcadia.”