Mater Dei Shakes Up Troy, Advances to Section Finals

Troy entered Thursday’s Division II girls’ tennis semifinal match with a gaudy 21-0 record. But it wasn’t long before the Warriors were brought back to reality.

Top-seeded Mater Dei (20-3) sent Troy reeling by winning five of the first six sets on its way to an easy, 12-6, victory and a second consecutive berth in the section finals.

“They’re definitely a very strong team all the way down,” Troy Coach Donna Judd said of Mater Dei. “I think we were a little intimidated. If we could have gone 3-3 in the first round, it would have put a little more pressure on them.”

Troy’s players appeared to settle down after the first round, but by then, it was too late. Mater Dei took seven of nine singles sets as the Monarchs received three victories from Melissa Esmero and Mary Hung at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Esmero, the top-ranked girls’ 16 player in Southern California, lost only four games in three sets.

“We were fired up,” Esmero said. “We had a team meeting before the match and I could tell we were really pumped.”

Esmero said her team was not threatened by Troy’s record.

“The win against Dana Hills earlier in the year gave us a lot of confidence in the playoffs,” Esmero said. “We knew if we could beat a Division I team, we could go far in Division II.”

The Monarchs will meet Santa Maria Righetti in Monday’s final at 9:30 a.m. at the Claremont Club. It could be their last appearance in the Division II playoffs.

“If we can get this one this year, more than likely, we’ll move up to Division I,” Mater Dei Coach Don Clark said.

Judd, whose team reached the Division III semifinals last year, also was looking ahead.

“Kids were already talking about playing over the summer,” she said. “We need to play at this level more often. We’re coming off a Division III season and Mater Dei’s been playing Division I teams.”

Judd said she contemplated moving two of her singles players into doubles to counteract Mater Dei’s strength in singles. But she ended up switching only one player--Karen Eitan--into doubles.

“I thought with Esmero winning her sets by so much, we’d be in trouble in games anyway,” Judd said. “And I wanted to give Amy [Sakoda] and Stacey [Lee] a chance to play a nationally ranked player.”

Mater Dei showed it has some doubles power too. The Monarchs handed Troy’s No. 1 team of Lori Judd and Veronica Fermin its first two losses.