Rostovsky Wins Tennis Title by Taking Control at Start

In a couple of months, La Jolla’s LeeAnn Rostovsky will make one of the more important decisions of her life--where she will play college tennis.

But Friday, it was evident she had only one thing on her mind--winning the section individual girls’ tennis championship that eluded her last year.

She took control from the first point, defeating La Jolla teammate, Lynn Coakley, 6-2, 6-3, in only 70 minutes at Kit Carson Park.

In the doubles final, Poway’s Leah Splavec and Katie Heyden came back from a set down to defeat Coronado’s Summer Redondo and Marni Hunt, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Earlier in the season, Heyden and Splavec lost to Redondo and Hunt in straight sets, but Friday they changed their game plan.

“We took some of our pace off after the first set,” Heyden said. “They love pace. And then as soon as we got back in the match, they started making the errors. I think they felt the pressure.”

Hunt and Redondo led, 3-2, in the second set before unraveling with wild forehands, double faults and netted volleys.

“I think I was trying too hard, because I wanted to win so bad,” Redondo said. “The balls they hit were so easy, we were just trying to hit them too hard.”

Rostovsky, second-seeded, played a tenacious, almost error-free match, which was almost the opposite of Coakley.

Coakley made 45 unforced errors, most of them on her backhand, and never seemed to fall into a rhythm. After holding her first service, Coakley was broken four consecutive times.

Rostovsky, meanwhile, stayed away from Coakley’s lethal forehand return by getting most of her first serves deep in the court or to Coakley’s backhand.

“I knew I had to get the balls deep,” said Rostovsky, who lost to Bishop’s Brooke Galardi in the semifinals last year. “She was missing a lot. I know from playing her in practice, it’s not how she usually plays.”

But even when Coakley appeared to gain momentum, Rostovsky was able to respond. Coakley, top-seeded, came back from an 0-3 second-set deficit to win three consecutive games and was a point from going ahead, 4-3. But Rostovsky ran down apparent forehand winners on three consecutive points, and eventually Coakley made an unforced error.

“I guess I was ready to run down her shots,” Rostovsky said, “she smashed her forehand.”

After breaking Coakley for the fifth time, Rostovsky held service to finish the match.