After Summer Tour, Irvin Was a Legend in the Fall

For Marissa Irvin, playing tennis for Harvard-Westlake High was much more than a way to keep active during a break in her world tour.

Irvin began the summer playing in the junior division at Wimbledon, the Italian Open and the French Open, and ended it winning the junior doubles title at the U.S. Open in early September.

Next month, she plans to travel to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

But she still cherished her only season of high school tennis.

Irvin led the Wolverines to the Mission League title and to the finals of the Southern Section Division III playoffs. She signed a letter of intent with Stanford and won the Southern Section individual tournament. Irvin did not lose a set this season and was pushed to a tiebreaker only in the section final.

For those accomplishments, Irvin is The Times’ regional girls’ tennis player of the year.

“This whole experience has been great,” Irvin said. “I always wanted to play something for my school, and this is something I waited for.”

Because of a heavy tournament schedule, Irvin and former Harvard-Westlake coach Richard Kinuya could not agree on a appropriate time commitment, so she did not play for the Wolverines in her first three high school years.

But new Coach Jennifer Dohr welcomed Irvin, who played in slightly more than half of Harvard-Westlake’s dual matches in the regular season.

“I probably practiced with [Harvard-Westlake] only about two or three times,” said Irvin, who usually works out with a private coach in Pacific Palisades. “But the team was great about making me feel a part of the team.”

When Irvin played, she joined senior Lindsay Forbess and freshman Stephanie Berg to form the region’s most formidable singles’ lineup. Even against the toughest opponents, the Wolverines needed to win only one doubles point to earn a victory, because Irvin, Forbess and Berg usually won their matches.

The strategy worked. Harvard-Westlake didn’t drop a match with Irvin playing until the section final, losing to Palm Desert, 10-8. Irvin, Forbess and Berg scored all the points.

Irvin had less trouble in the individual tournament. She was pushed to a tiebreaker in the final by Morisa Yang of West Torrance, but won, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).

“It’s a different atmosphere playing high school tennis,” Irvin said. “There’s a lot less tension.”

* ALL-REGION

Listing for first-team and second-team members: C12