SOUTHERN SECTION TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Three Players From County Advance to Round of 16

Corona del Mar freshman Nina Vaughan took a longer route to the Southern Section individual round of 16 than El Modena senior Brandi Freudenberg and Villa Park sophomore Faye DeVera, but she got there just the same.

While Freudenberg and DeVera rushed the net and played aggressively and quickly in winning their two matches, Vaughan played moonball tennis and never ventured far from the baseline in beating her friend, Michelle Bray of Laguna Beach, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, in 2 hours 30 minutes.

“I played a game that I didn’t like to play,” said Vaughan, who cruised past Rosary’s Eleanor Luzano, 6-2, 6-1, in her first match at the Huntington Beach High sectional, one of three held Saturday. “I hit a lot of high balls. I played that way because I know Michelle can hit as hard as I can and I figured that was the best way to win.”

Vaughan, who was the Sea View League’s No. 2 seeded player, apologized to the spectators.

“I played a frustrating game,” she said. “It was not a fun game to play or to play against . . . or to watch.”

Freudenberg and DeVera appeared to have fun in what little time they spent on the court. DeVera, who lost in the round of 16 last year, did not drop a game in beating Dana Hills’ Marguax Pierog and Sunny Hills’ Dana Rudolph. Freudenberg, who has reached the semifinals two of the past three years, dropped only two games in beating El Dorado’s Mielle Weisz and Dana Hills’ Lara Spica.

Freudenberg is hoping to be seeded second to Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Amanda Basica, the nation’s top-ranked player in the girls’ 16 division, when the tournament continues Dec. 1 and 2 at the Lindborg Racquet Club.

The three Orange County players will be joined in the draw by Temecula Valley’s Sanaz Ghazal, who beat an erratic Sarah Denson of Irvine, 6-4, 6-2.

The four teams which advanced to the round-of-16 doubles draw were El Modena’s Holli Freudenberg and Amy Medlin, Corona del Mar’s Megan Wachtler and Alissa Scott, Canyon’s Shannon Wilkins and Kim Westermann and Dana Hills’ Michele Johnson and Katie Tierney.

Wachtler and Scott had the toughest time reaching the round of 16. It took them almost three hours to beat Laguna Beach’s Lindsay Weiss and Amanda Hastings-Phillips, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-6, (12-10).