La Jolla, Torrey Pines Win in Tennis

The San Diego Section 2-A and 3-A girls’ team tennis finals were not expected to be close. They weren’t. La Jolla defeated San Pasqual, 12-6, to win the 2-A, and Torrey Pines beat Poway, 13-5, for the 3-A title Saturday at Canyon Hills Racquet Club.

And the relative ease in which La Jolla and Torrey Pines won the titles was put into perspective by a San Pasqual freshman and a Torrey Pines sophomore.

After the 2-A match, San Pasqual’s Molly Gavin was asked if she thought her team had a chance of beating La Jolla. “Realistically, no,” she said without much hesitation. “But it was a lot closer than we thought. I expected it to be a lot worse.”

It would have been had Gavin not defeated La Jolla’s top three players, Lynn Coakley, LeeAnn Rostovsky and Renee Gold, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.

With Gavin’s victories and freshman Britt Stenstrom’s triumph over Gold, San Pasqual (20-2) won four of the nine singles matches. But the doubles were dominated by La Jolla, 7-2.

La Jolla’s doubles teams of Tasha Muto and Kim First and Tiffany Dominguez and Julie Teel swept their three matches, and Jenny Morse and Michelle Trimble won one of three.

“We figured we’d get some competition, but we didn’t know what to expect in doubles,” La Jolla Coach Beth Behnke said.

La Jolla’s victory ended three consecutive years of being the bridesmaid to Bishop’s. But the title was the Vikings’ seventh since 1980.

By avenging a 10-8 loss to Poway in last year’s finals, Torrey Pines won its third section title in the past five years. The Falcons also finished the season unbeaten for the second time in their history, two of their victories were easy ones against Poway.

But was Torrey Pines sophomore Erin Bohrnstedt worried about her team coming in overconfident? “We figured there was a reason to be cocky,” she said.

There figures to be even more of a reason in the coming years. The Torrey Pines starting team is composed of four freshmen and two sophomores, and two more outstanding freshmen are expected next year.