A Long Day of Waiting to Play Tennis Dissolves in the Rain

A long, cold day of waiting and wondering at the Southern Section individual girls’ tennis championships finally ended Thursday evening when a light but persistent rain caused the suspension of several quarterfinal matches.

A shortage of courts at the Racquet Club of Irvine and several marathon round-of-16 matches caused two- and three-hour delays between matches for some players. Others, such as Villa Park’s Faye DeVera and Katey Becker, showed up to play at noon, then waited four hours to play their first point. DeVera and Becker, the top-seeded doubles team, received a first-round bye but weren’t notified until they arrived at RCI.

Once they got started, they made quick work of Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Tracey Popeney and Cheyne Ursich, 6-2, 6-2, before the rain came. DeVera and Becker were given a bye when a doubles team that had qualified decided to drop out.

“It’s tough when you warm up and then have to sit around again,” Becker said.

But not much about Becker and DeVera’s match was tough. They simply overpowered Popeney and Ursich, who made the mistake of trying to lob the Villa Park pair.

“We just went out and had fun,” DeVera said. “I think people thought we were strategizing between points, but we were just talking.”

The other quarterfinal matches that were completed were Calabasas’ Shervin Saedinia and Debbie Pepkowitz’s 6-2, 6-1 victory over Dana Hills’ Amy Tranckino and Kate Romm and Temecula Valley’s Sanaz Ghazal’s 6-0, 6-0 victory over Newhall Hart’s Jieun Jacobs.

Mater Dei freshman Melissa Esmero won a grueling three-set match with Calvary Chapel’s Nicole Kojima, and was in her third set with Corona del Mar’s Nina Vaughan with Vaughan up, 3-2, when rain halted play.

Woodbridge’s Natalie Exon beat Peninsula’s Christie Tjong, 6-1, 6-1, then waited three hours to play Pasadena Mayfield’s Mauren Diaz, who went three sets with Palm Desert’s Jennifer Baker. Exon led Diaz, 3-1, in the first set when the rain arrived.

Corona del Mar’s Nadia Vaughan and Caylan Leslie led their quarterfinal match with Dana Hills’ Summer Tantee and Margaux Pierog, 2-1 in the first set.

Today isn’t expected to be a short day either. Rain is forecasted and many players will have to finish their quarterfinal matches before they play the semifinals and