Falcons have enough to top Nitros
LA CRESCENTA — Crescenta Valley High girls’ singles player Erin LeVoir went into her team’s latest Pacific League match knowing that it was going to be a battle, something that often happens when her and the Falcons face Glendale.
Nonetheless, LeVoir swept her three sets to help host Crescenta Valley pick up an 11-7 Pacific League win against Glendale on Monday afternoon.
“Glendale always has a good team, and you know going in that they are a team that just won’t quit,” said LeVoir, who lost nine games. “I knew going in that it would again be a challenge, and I just had to try to play the point.
“They give me a good workout, and I know that I will have to run a lot.”
Crescenta Valley (11-2 and 7-2 in league) saw LeVoir pick up a 6-4 win against Samantha Sismundo to give the Falcons a 10-5 lead. LeVoir had earlier registered a 6-4 victory against Sevana Zargarian to put the Falcons up, 6-5. LeVoir, the reigning league singles champion and All-Area Singles Player of the Year, also nabbed a 6-1 set win.
Crescenta Valley, the reigning two-time league champion, also got a sweep in doubles from Tenny Soleymani and Viktoriya Shumakova to complete the two-match season series sweep of Glendale (7-5, 5-4). The duo teamed up for a 7-6 (9-7), 6-0, 6-0 sweep.
Glendale Coach Bob Davidson said the tiebreaker loss and LeVoir’s win against Zargarian, which avenged a loss to Zargarian in the team’s prior meeting, proved to be the turning points of the three-hour match.
“It was 5-5, and we lost those couple of close sets,” said Davidson, whose team fell to Crescenta Valley, 9-9 (81-75), at Glendale on Sept. 17. “Those two sets happened around the same time, and there was a big momentum swing.
“Crescenta Valley’s got too much depth for us.”
The Falcons got two doubles wins apiece from Ani Ebrahimian and Audri Pardo (6-1, 6-2) and Andrea Megerdichian and Hana Park (6-0, 6-1) and a singles win from Carineh Ghafafian (6-4).
The Nitros saw Sismundo, who teamed up with Zargarian to win the league doubles crown and All-Area Doubles Team of the Year last season, win two sets (6-0, 6-0). Zargarian picked up a pair of 6-1 wins and Hana Jang got a singles victory (6-2). Glendale’s Samantha Jaramillo and Adrine Babakhanyan worked together to pick up a pair of victories, 6-3, 7-5.
Glendale built a 4-2 lead through the first round before the Falcons battled back.
“We got off to a terrible start, but then we were able to regroup,” Crescenta Valley High Coach Tom Gossard said. “We got lucky in doubles by getting a few lucky bounces.
“After the first round, I thought we were in trouble. Sevana and Sammy [Sismundo] are two of the classiest people I’ve coached against. It’s good, clean high school tennis.”
Monday’s match was originally scheduled to be played Oct. 13, but rain forced it to be postponed. Crescenta Valley will meet Burroughs in a league match at 3:15 p.m. today. Glendale will next compete at Thursday at Arcadia.
CHARLES RICH covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3228 or charles.rich@latimes.com.
