Fountain Valley girls’ tennis falls to Villa Park in CIF Division 3 title match
It’s ironic, in a way, that a team void of standout junior players could make it to the finals of the biggest tournament in high school tennis.
The Fountain Valley High School girls’ tennis team just had a special thing going this year.
The Barons captured the Wave League crown, their first league title since 1991. They not only advanced past the second round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the first time, but they made it all the way to the Division 3 title match.
On a windy Friday afternoon, though, No. 2-seeded Fountain Valley ran into a buzz saw.
Top-seeded Villa Park swept in singles and earned a 14-4 win in the Division 3 title match at Villa Park High.
The scrappy Barons’ season ended, but at a height the program had never seen before in Coach Harshul Patel’s 12-year tenure. They came a long way from finishing last in league as recently as last year.
Fountain Valley’s Paige Ngo, one of six seniors, broke down in tears after talking about what being on the team meant to her.
“I definitely credit our team spirit and bonding,” she said. “Even though we didn’t win today, we still are walking off with the best friendships we could have ever made.”
Villa Park (18-2) was too strong in singles. Grace Gamal, Morgan Shaffer and Jordyn Kuo combined to win 18 of 19 games. Coach Ron Metcalf said that also happened in the Spartans’ 15-3 Division 3 semifinal win over Valencia.
Sidney Shaffer and Elianna Vu swept at No. 1 doubles for Villa Park, and Aubrey McGrew and Nikki Tran won twice at No. 3 doubles.
The Shaffer sisters are the daughters of former La Quinta High star Debbie Graham Shaffer, who was the nation’s top collegiate player at Stanford in 1990 and went on to win five WTA Tour doubles titles.
The hosts led 5-1 after the first round, and had clinched the match with a 10-2 lead after two rounds.
“That’s a tough team,” Patel said. “You’ve got to give credit to them, because they do so much work outside [of school]. When they come into high school tennis, they get rewarded. For us, we didn’t have anything like that playing in our favor, but then we go out and perform at a very high level. For us, personally, it’s a really big deal, because we’re competing against really good teams and good players.”
Fountain Valley (17-5) was led by the No. 1 doubles team of senior captain Kaylee Tran and junior Emily Tran, who won twice. Seniors Paige Ngo and Christy Chau won once at No. 2 doubles, as did senior Skylar Ngo and sophomore Iris Chau at No. 3 doubles.
Freshman Sophie Vu, junior Nghi Trinh and senior Tiffany Hoang battled in singles all match long.
Kaylee Tran is the only one of the six seniors who spent four years on varsity.
“No matter the result, we were going to be proud of ourselves,” she said. “Ultimately, we’re a team full of players who aren’t really expected to win big tournaments. To make it here in itself was a big enough accomplishment for us, and to win would have just been a great bonus.
“It means the world [to make the CIF finals]. When you leave your high school, you want to know, ‘I made an impact, I did something.’ I want people to remember what we did as a team.”
Gamal said taking it match-by-match was key for Villa Park, which won its second CIF crown in program history. The Spartans also won the Division 2 title in 1995.
Several members of the Fountain Valley boys’ tennis team came Friday to root on the girls.
Patel will coach the boys Saturday, as they play on the road against No. 2-seeded Studio City Harvard-Westlake in the first round of the Open Division playoffs.
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