Warriors Win 4th Straight Title

The Woodbridge girls’ tennis team won its fourth consecutive Sea View League title, its second outright, in resounding fashion with a 12-6 victory over rival Corona del Mar Thursday at Woodbridge.

The margin of victory was probably the biggest surprise. But much of that had to do with the surprising play of freshman Gloriann Lopez, who won two of three singles sets, including a 6-4 upset of Corona del Mar’s No. 1 player, Nadia Vaughan.

With the victory, Woodbridge raised its record to 17-0, 9-0 in league. If the Warriors defeat Santa Margarita next week, they would complete their first undefeated season and enter the Southern Section Division I playoffs as the top-seeded team. Corona del Mar (11-3, 7-2) will probably be seeded third.

Before the match, Woodbridge Coach Joan Willett decided to play a hunch and move Lopez into the singles lineup and rotate freshman Evangelina Soriano into doubles.

“I thought going in that Gloriann would be able to win a lot of games, but boy, she really won a lot of games,” Willett said as Lopez was wrapping up her second victory, a 6-3 decision over Kim Singer. “Look at the way she’s moving that ball around. She’s in a zone.”

Lopez wasn’t the only Woodbridge player to experience the zone. Sophomore Susanna Lingman blew her three opponents off the court, winning 6-0 over Vaughan, 6-0 over Eva Baudenbacher and 6-2 over Singer. In the teams’ first meeting--a 10-8 Woodbridge victory--Lingman lost to Vaughan, 6-0, for her only defeat of the season.

Lingman remembered.

“I wanted some revenge after that last match,” she said. “My goal was to be aggressive. Last time, I was passive and I let her dictate the points. I am starting to come into [the court] in my matches. I’m hitting the ball pretty clean. I’m pretty happy.”

Willett said Lingman was impressive: “Some of those shots she hit looked like the space shuttle taking off. She was hitting so hard and so accurately.”

Meanwhile, Vaughan was rushed and erratic.

“[Lingman and Lopez] played awesome,” Vaughan said. “It was one of my off days. Everybody has them. Better now than in CIF.”

The only negative for Woodbridge was the first loss for the doubles team of Adriana Hockicko and April Artunian, who were beaten by Courtney Tenerelli and Ruchika Budhraja, 7-5.