Argonauts Closer, but Still Bow Out Against Westlake

For the second consecutive year, Garden Grove High’s girls’ tennis season ended with a playoff loss to Westlake Village Westlake. Saturday’s second-round match in the Southern Section Division III playoffs was much closer and much more heated than last year’s blowout in the quarterfinals, but it was still a loss, 9-9 (80-76 in games), at Garden Grove.

“We have a saying, ‘If I coulda, I shoulda, I woulda, but I didn’t,’ ” Garden Grove Grove Coach William Lou said. “We started slow, and we just came up short. I’m still really proud of this team.”

The Argonauts (19-3) appeared to be on their way to a second consecutive 15-3 loss to Westlake (16-4) as they trailed, 8-3, midway through the second round. But they won five consecutive sets to tie the match, 8-8. Westlake’s No. 2 player, Amy Corwin, stopped Garden Grove’s momentum and clinched the victory with a 6-3 defeat of Le Phan, the Argonauts’ No. 1 player.

Corwin’s victory, her third of the day, gave Westlake a 75-69 lead in games, which was insurmountable because Westlake’s No. 1, Jessica Blau, had already won three games in her set with Thuy Vo.

Blau lost to Vo, 7-5, and she lost her other two sets to Phan, 7-5, and Hono An Huynh, 6-3. But her sets against Phan and Vo were interrupted for nearly an hour by disputes over game scores. The 35-minute argument with Phan lengthened the set to two hours.

“I don’t think it did bother us,” Lou said. “But I think the kids will feel bad about it. We played hard, but we played fair.”

Garden Grove’s doubles teams had been its strength all season, but Saturday Lou got just three wins in doubles, two from the No. 1 team of Jennifer Kim and Rachael Naishtut.

“It’s a tough one to swallow, but we’ll go on,” said Lou, whose team won its fifth consecutive Garden Grove League title this season.