Chaminade Pair Makes Big Point

It has been almost a month since Monica Andrews and Monica Alonso of the Chaminade High girls’ tennis team lost their set to Harvard-Westlake’s Amanda Countner and Kelly Hanker.

Even though Chaminade won that match on Sept. 26, Andrews and Alonso didn’t forgot their loss. For twenty six days they plotted revenge.

On Tuesday, they got it.

Alonso and Andrews defeated Countner and Hanker for the Eagles’ clinching point in a 10-8 Mission League victory at the Northridge Tennis Club.

“Our goal was to beat that team,” Andrews said. “We lost to them last time, so we really wanted to win.”

The teams finished the second rotation tied, 6-6, and were also even in games, 48-48. With all sets in the third rotation complete except Andrews and Alonso’s, Chaminade clung to a 9-8 lead.

All other players surrounded court No. 6, cheering wildly at each point. With Alonso serving for the set at 5-3, the Chaminade No. 2 doubles team rattled off the last three points.

Had Countner and Hanker won, the decision would have come down to overall games. Not counting the Countner-Hanker set, Harvard-Westlake held a 72-69 game advantage.

“We’ve never had everyone crowded around one of our matches like that,” Alonso said. “We didn’t know what the score [of the match] was, but when we saw everyone we knew it mattered.”

Chaminade (13-0, 9-0 in league) has the inside track on the league title, which has been passed between Chaminade and Harvard-Westlake for the last four seasons.

The Wolverines (9-5, 6-2) are the defending league champions and figured to be the only threat to the Eagles. Chaminade has five league matches to play, Harvard-Westlake has six.

“This was a big goal” Chaminade Coach Andy Berenson said. “These are the two strongest teams in the league and our only league losses last year were to Harvard-Westlake.”

Lindsy Forbess, playing at No. 3 singles for Harvard-Westlake, swept her sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. The sweep included her second victory of the season over Teresa Galido, Chaminade’s No. 1 player, who Forbess had not defeated prior to this season.

With 6-1 and 7-5 victories in their first two sets, Alonso and Andrews had the only sweep for the Eagles.

Galido, Kinsley Carnahan and Tina Kapadia each won two sets, losing only to Forbess.