Marina’s Mika Ikemori, Laguna Beach’s Jessica MacCallum win at tennis sectionals
Mika Ikemori enjoys teamwork on the tennis court.
She’s been the top singles player for Marina High School for three years now, yet the Vikings junior said she enjoys doubles just as much.
Ikemori and her partner won a big doubles tournament Sunday, even though she had to beat two good friends in the title match to earn the hardware.
Top-seeded Ikemori and Maya Urata of La Cañada Flintridge defeated Laguna Beach’s Sarah MacCallum and Katelyn Smith, 6-4, 6-3 in the girls’ 18 doubles final of the 119th annual Jim Hillman Southern California Junior Sectional Doubles Championships.
The title matches were played at Los Cab Sports Village in Fountain Valley.
MacCallum’s younger sister Jessica was also a winner. Second-seeded Jessica MacCallum and partner Cassius Chinlund of Los Angeles won the mixed 16s doubles title, beating top-seeded Maren Urata and William Hsieh of Midway City 7-6, 6-0 in the title match.
Jessica MacCallum was also a 16s girls’ doubles finalist. She and partner Maren Urata fell to No. 2 seeded Krisha Mahendran of Oak Park and Daniela Borruel of Buena Park 6-3, 6-2 in the title match.
Fountain Valley’s Alan Ton and Newport Beach’s Perry Di Giulio were boys’ 16s finalists. The No. 8 seeds, they lost to No. 3-seeded Brandon Vu of Chino Hills and Cayden Wang of Irvine 6-4, 7-6 in the title match.
Ikemori said it meant a lot to win the girls’ 18s title. She’s been playing well this fall, capturing the Wave League individual singles title.
“It’s kind of like the big one,” she said of winning doubles sectionals in the top division. “It meant a lot to me. My partner, we play together all the time in national tournaments, and this is her last doubles sectionals. This will be one of our last tournaments together, which is kind of sad. I’m really happy that we were able to pull it out, especially against such good teams. All of the teams we played were very, very good.”
That included Sarah MacCallum and Smith, who were unseeded yet advanced all the way to the final. They beat the Nos. 2, 4 and 5-seeded teams to get there.
It was interesting for Ikemori to play her two good friends in the final. She and MacCallum work together as volunteers for the nonprofit tennis club Second Serve, which donates tennis equipment to underprivileged children around the country and world.
“I think we just went into it with the same attitude as our other matches,” Ikemori said. “For all of our matches, we kind of just were like, ‘Let’s have some fun and not overthink anything, just go with the flow.’ I’m very proud of Katelyn and Sarah. They played really well. They beat a lot of really good, seasoned teams, so it was really nice to play them. I’m really happy that we were both able to get to the finals.”
Jessica MacCallum, who won her first gold ball in doubles last summer, was also happy with her tournament. She and her older sister Sarah teamed up to win the Wave League doubles title in high school this fall.
“It was fun,” she said. “Losing in the [girls’ doubles] finals is always kind of hard, but I’m glad I made it that far. My mom always says that there’s only one team that did better, so that makes me feel better to know.”
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