Three Warriors Cruise in Preliminaries

Three Woodbridge players cruised through the preliminaries of the Southern Section individual tennis championships Saturday at Huntington Beach High, after the team advanced to the team finals the previous day.

Top-seeded Natalie Exon advanced to the round of 16 in fairly easy fashion. Exon, who had a first-round bye, quickly put away El Dorado’s Melisa Liao, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round.

Exon then faced El Modena’s Holli Freudenberg, and put her away, 6-2, 6-4.

“I feel like I haven’t had very many competitive matches this year,” Exon said. “So it is nice to finally play some competition.”

In the first set, leading, 3-2, Exon rallied from a 30-15 deficit to break Freudenberg’s serve and take a 4-2 lead. Exon then won the next two games and took the set, 6-2.

In the second set, Exon led, 5-4, and this time she rallied from 15-40. Freudenberg committed three unforced errors and Exon held on to win, 6-4.

Exon will miss her team championship match Tuesday to attend the national indoor championships in Detroit.

“I’m 99.9% sure my team is going to win without me, so I just want to concentrate on my own game right now.”

In doubles, Exon’s teammates Michelle Stiefel and Danielle Hustedt pulled off one of the few upsets of the day as they upended third-seeded Claire Gries and Stephanie Chang from Villa Park, 6-3, 6-2.

Gries and Chang struggled in their second-round match before defeating Corona Centennial’s Erica Goode and Dana Leonti, 7-6, 7-5. Stiefel and Hustedt swept through their second-round match, 6-3, 6-0, over Garden Grove’s Tam Dang and Quang Nguyen.

The only other seeded player to lose was Canyon’s Shannon Wilkins, who had to retire because of severe leg cramps. Wilkins was leading, 7-5, 6-5, over Laguna Hills’ Jessica Prause, who advances to the round of 16.

Other players advancing to the round of 16 on Dec. 5:

In singles: Etel Bugescu (University) and Allison Arvizu (Huntington Beach).

In doubles: Faye DeVera-Katey Becker (Villa Park), Amy Tranckino-Kate Romm (Dana Hills), and Summer Tantee-Margaux Pierog (Dana Hills).

In other Southern Section girls’ individual tennis playoffs:

Corona del Mar advances--Corona del Mar’s Nina Vaughan swept her singles sets, 6-2, 6-2, and the Sea Kings’ doubles team of Nadia Vaughan and Kayan Leslie swept, 6-1, 6-4, to advance t the fourth round. Earlier in the second round, Nina Vaughan swept, 6-1, 6-1, and the doubles team of Nadia Vaughan and Leslie swept, 6-2, 6-3.