Sage Hill girls’ tennis falls to 0-2 after loss to Santa Margarita

The Sage Hill School girls’ tennis team has not exactly had the luxury of easing into its nonleague schedule.

The Lightning, who lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs each of the last three years, moved down a division to Division 2. Yet each of Sage Hill’s first two opponents — Mater Dei on Tuesday and Santa Margarita on Wednesday — were Division 1 foes with strong singles lineups.

Sage Hill certainly felt the heat on a warm day Wednesday on the Lightning campus. Santa Margarita cruised to a 13-5 victory, winning seven singles sets and six doubles sets.

The match was actually not as close as the final score suggested, as Santa Margarita had an 11-1 lead after two rounds before coach Eric Michaut subbed out seven of his starters.

Still, Sage Hill coach Whit Kenerson said he liked the fight of his team, coming off a 12-6 loss to Mater Dei the day before. Kenerson said the Lightning also battled hot temperatures in their season opener at Los Caballeros Racquet Club.

“They were trying, but they were just kind of beat up,” Kenerson said. “Today, even though there were some subs [for Santa Margarita], everybody played well at the end. It was good. Our practices are an hour and a half, an hour and forty-five [minutes], and a lot of these matches are three hours. The kids have got to get used to conditioning and being able to play for three hours.”

Sage Hill seniors Madison Dao and Kimi Reddy provided a highlight at No. 2 doubles. They were the only ones to win twice, including a 7-5 victory in the third round.

“We got a little tired at the end [against Mater Dei],” Reddy said. “We made it our goal to keep going today.”

Sage Hill’s Karina Grover hits a forehand during her singles set against Santa Margarita in a nonleague match in Newport Beach on Wednesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Sage Hill senior Karina Grover and freshman Kana Byrd, who is the younger sister of former Lightning tennis standout Maya Byrd, each won once in singles. Senior Miya Stauss is the other singles starter for Sage Hill.

Seniors Julia Yuen and Kate Marshall won once in doubles for Sage Hill, and Kenerson said that having six senior starters is a strength of his squad. The No. 1 doubles team is junior Lauren Avenatti and sophomore Alexis Ha.

“We’ve lost nine girls in the last two years, and some of them were pretty good tournament players,” Kenerson said. “We’re a work in progress.”

Senior Elizabeth Bondy, sophomore Vicky Zhang and freshman Sarah Clarke each won twice in singles for Santa Margarita (2-0) before being subbed out.

The doubles teams of Amelia Kitts and Megan Plocher, as well as Bethany Chang and Lea Sakakine, each won twice in the first two rounds for the visitors.

“The girls have been working very hard at practice,” Michaut said. “We knew that coming to Sage Hill it would be a battle, because it’s always been close matches. We are very happy to be able to compete well against a very well-coached team.”

Kenerson said the Lightning have a shot for their first win of the season Thursday when they host Los Alamitos, which is a fellow Division 2 school. The players are aware that there is room for improvement.

“It’s our second week of school, and it’s kind of a new team,” said Dao, one of three team captains along with Grover and Stauss. “We have three tough matches [this week], one more [Thursday]. We’ve been losing, but I think we’re all just really supportive of each other. Even if we lose, they’re nonleague [matches], and I think we’re just going to pull through even harder next week.”

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