CdM’s Chen, Edalat use their smarts
Corona del Mar High senior Erica Chen and junior Camellia Edalat are great examples of being a successful student-athlete.
Chen and Edalat excel in both parts of that term. As students, Chen has a 4.6 grade-point average at CdM. She’s in five Advanced Placement classes — Statistics, Psychology, Government, Physics and Literature — after taking five more last year.
Edalat, who has a 4.2 GPA, is in four AP classes this year, with AP U.S. History, Biology, Calculus BC and Language on the course load.
“I couldn’t take five because of my language [class],” said Edalat, who is also in French 3, with a smile.
Chen and Edalat are good-natured, if a bit on the quiet side. But don’t question their credentials as athletes either. Sure, CdM has a very strong singles lineup with sophomore Danielle Willson, junior Jasie Dunk and senior Siena Sharf, but Chen and Edalat are certainly no slouches.
They’ve been the No. 1 doubles team for CdM girls’ tennis all season, and they just keep winning. Chen and Edalat improved to 26-1 as a doubles team this season with two set victories against Sage Hill on Wednesday before they were subbed out. Former CdM coach Brian Ricker said the best CdM doubles record in his 11 years with the program was by Azadeh Nazemi and Kelli Feeley, who went 40-1 as a duo in 2009. That’s in play for Chen and Edalat.
Good friends off the court, Chen and Edalat Even use their intelligence in tangible ways on the court. It was on display last week, as the Sea Kings played at rival University in a Pacific Coast League showdown on Oct. 1.
Chen and Edalat, the Daily Pilot Athletes of the Week, swept with scores of 6-3, 6-3 and 6-1. CdM won the match, 14-4, taking over first place in league and snapping University’s 54-match winning streak in league, which also dated back to 2009.
But it wasn’t quite as easy as the scores would suggest. Chen and Edalat were actually down 3-2 in their second set, against Uni’s No. 2 team of seniors Melina Gharibian and Silke Hoffman, before making a tactical adjustment. They smartly went away from the normal “one up, one back” strategy that they typically employ.
“We thought we needed to change things around a little bit to get our game going,” Chen said. “I would be the net person, so when I received I would run up, and Camellia would just stay back. It was essentially the ‘Taylor strategy.’”
Chen is referring to CdM girls’ tennis graduate Taylor Fogarty, who would typically charge the net in doubles at the right time. Both Chen and Edalat played with Fogarty, Edalat last year at No. 2 doubles and Chen in 2013 at No. 3 doubles.
At 5-foot-5, Chen is four inches shorter than Fogarty, but they made it work against Uni, winning the last four games of the match to edge Gharibian and Hoffman.
“They really are good doubles players,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said. “They can make a tactical adjustment and figure out, whether I say it to them or they figure it out ... They read the game well and they just play instinctively. Most of all, I just feel like they have fun out there. They really enjoy playing with each other and kind of bring the best out in each other.
“Camellia takes care of more of the baseline work, she likes to use her backhand a lot, and Erica is that girl who’s all over the net, moving and poaching. They each have their specific job, but they’re both good at doing the other one’s job, too.”
Both players have known they wanted to play on the CdM girls’ tennis team for a while. Erica Chen watched her older sister Sophia, who graduated in 2013 and now plays at Caltech, come up through the ranks. Edalat did the same with her older cousins, Ariana and Kimmia Naaseh, both of whom played doubles for CdM as well.
“They lived right across the street before they moved,” said Edalat, whose mom Roxana is sisters with Marjan Naaseh. “As a child, I was always with them. They were like my older sisters, because I didn’t have a sibling. They’re like my role models, my inspiration, so it’s really fun ... I definitely wanted to kind of follow both of their paths.”
The only set that Chen and Edalat have lost all year was to JSerra’s sister team of Zoe and Mary Kaffen, 6-3. That set was early in the season, though, and Edalat said she believes the result could be different if they played again.
The No. 1 doubles team is bringing that kind of confidence now for CdM (9-1, 5-0 in league), which is up to the No. 3 ranking in CIF Southern Section Division 1. The Sea Kings play host to No. 2-ranked Mira Costa in a key match on Wednesday.
Expect Chen and Edalat to be ready. Nobody on the team is doubting them now.
The pressure of tennis, well, isn’t really that much to two kids who have hours of homework to attend to. Both Chen and Edalat also volunteer at Hoag Hospital.
“I use tennis as a stress outlet,” Chen said. “After school, you have two hours where you can’t think about school, you have to focus on something besides school. The APs kind of go away in those two hours, and that’s really nice, I think. It’s good to take a break with tennis.”
All of that winning helps lower the stress levels, as well.
“They definitely are on the quieter side, in terms of how they carry themselves, but their racquets do the talking,” Gresh said. “The other girls know what they’re going to get from them, because they always play well together and they’re always consistent. They feel that they can sweep every time out. Their teammates are kind of counting on that, and they’re living up to that.”
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Erica Chen
Born: March 2, 1998
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-5
Sport: Tennis
Year: Senior
Coach: Jamie Gresh
Favorite food: Pasta
Favorite movie: “Big Hero 6”
Favorite athletic moment: As a junior, helping CdM win the California Tennis Classic tournament in Fresno for the second straight year.
Week in review: Chen swept at No. 1 doubles with Camellia Edalat in CdM’s 14-4 Pacific Coast League win at University on Oct. 1, ending the Trojans’ 54-match winning streak in league.
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Camellia Edalat
Born: Oct. 27, 1999
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-4
Sport: Tennis
Year: Junior
Coach: Jamie Gresh
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite movie: “Despicable Me”
Favorite athletic moment: Winning the Battle of the Bay match, 18-0, against rival Newport Harbor last year.
Week in review: Edalat swept at No. 1 doubles with Erica Chen in CdM’s 14-4 Pacific Coast League win at University on Oct. 1, ending the Trojans’ 54-match winning streak in league.
