San Marino tennis keeps Rio Hondo League under wraps

TEMPLE CITY — Despite all the graduations and new players on the San Marino High girls’ tennis team, not much has changed for the Titans in a year.

It was never more evident than at the preliminaries of the Rio Hondo Individual Tournament, which continues with the semifinals and finals Thursday, at Live Oak Park Wednesday. After accounting for the league’s singles and doubles champions and runners-up in 2011, San Marino is on pace to do it again after all three of its singles players and doubles teams advanced to the semifinals.

“They played well and our teams are a little bit different. We are trying different lineups, but I kind of expected that,” San Marino Coach Melwin Pereira said of all six of his participants advancing.

Pereira shuffled his doubles lineup for the tournament and it paid off. San Marino’s No. 1 team of Madeline Gandawidjaja and Larissa Phillips, which received a first-round bye as the top seed, advanced without dropping a game against La Cañada’s Lynn Gilmour and Ana Dewar (8-0) in the second round.

“I like having Madeline as my partner,” said Phillips, a senior who won the league doubles title with Vivian Le last year. “She is very different from my other partner in that she hits harder and I think we complement each other well. I think we’re a stronger team and I really enjoy playing with her.”

As a freshman, Madeline Gandawidjaja said being able to draw upon Phillips’ leadership was a huge benefit in the tournament.

“Larissa is like a captain,” she said. “She’s really experienced and she’s been telling me how it all goes since the first match. It makes it a lot easier.”

Andrea Klein and Aliki Kvitne — a new pairing Pereira’s used just once this year — moved on against South Pasadena’s An Le and Sarah Cho (8-0) in the first round and only dropped three games to La Cañada’s Alison Chang and Sharyse Watanabe in the second round (8-3). They will face Gandawidjaja and Phillips in the semifinals Thursday, which begins at noon.

Monique Gandawidjaja and Lauren Chang, which recently teamed up after Chang had previously played with Klein and Monique Gandawidjaja and Kvitne had been in reserve roles, only dropped two games Wednesday with wins over the Tigers’ Katherine Shinno and Jennifer Orr (8-0) and the Spartans’ Emily Swanson and Serena Zheng (8-2). Chang and Monique Gandawidjaja will face Temple City’s Serena Lin and Melody Wang in the semifinals Thursday.

Singles was even more dominant for the Titans, who didn’t drop a single game in the bracket.

Dorothy Tang, who won the league singles title as a freshman and sophomore, is looking to avenge a loss to former teammate Sarah Gealer in the championship match last year (6-3, 1-6, 10-7). The top-seeded senior started her journey with a bye and followed it up with a spotless 8-0 win over Monrovia’s Victoria Rose.

“I’d like to win it my senior year, especially since it’s my last time playing this league tournament,” Tang said. “It’s been a nice ride. I’m excited to go to college, but I know I’m going to miss this, just high school tennis and playing with the team. [The tournament’s] a nice send off, I’m just taking it in right now.”

San Marino’s No. 2 and 3 singles players, Devon Jack and Vivian Le, were just as impressive, as both posted two 8-0 victories. Le did so against Temple City’s Kim Ho and La Cañada’s Sawa Keymeulen, while Jack enjoyed wins over the Wildcats’ Audrey Lilyquist and the Spartans’ Sharon Kim.

Jack and Le will square off in the semifinals Thursday with Tang opening with the Rams ace Joy Huang.

“Vivian is playing really right now and so is Devon so it will be a nice match to watch,” Pereira said.

Symona Stans was the only South Pasadena player to advance to the second round Wednesday, as she posted an 8-1 win over Temple City’s Tiffany Yeh before falling to Huang, 8-1, after keeping it close with a one-game deficit, 2-1, early.

“Joy played well,” South Pasadena Coach Jim Asher said. “She was missing her shots to begin with. Her shots were hitting the tape and just missing the line and I thought, ‘If this keeps happening Symona can win this match.’ Then Joy started finding her range and hitting some shots. Symona’s got time. I’m not worried about Symona, she’ll be as good as she wants to be. She’s very athletic, she’s just got to learn to play aggressively.”

While the future may be bright for a young Tigers squad, they didn’t have much success Wednesday.

South Pasadena’s Elyse Yim and Jennifer Wu fell in the first round of singles action to La Cañada’s Sawa Keymeulen (8-0) and Huang (8-0).

In doubles, the Tigers’ revamped No. 1 squad of Karinna Loo, who was moved from singles from the tournament, and Rebecca Bu fell to the Rams’ Britni Tran and Andria Chek, 8-2, with Le and Cho and Shinno and Orr both falling to San Marino in the first round on scores of 8-0.

“You fall behind in the beginning and it’s so tough because you don’t have a second set to catch up,” said Asher of the eight-game pro set style of play in the preliminary rounds of the league tournament. “You’re just digging yourself a hole and your opponent is that much closer to the end. In a two-out-of-three-set match like they play in the semifinals you can lose the first set, blow it off and regroup. You can’t do that here.”