San Marino tennis captures CIF championship
CLAREMONT — A return to prominence included some unexpected dominance from the San Marino High girls’ tennis team Friday afternoon.
The CIF Southern Section Division II top-ranked Titans captured their third team championship in four years and 11th overall in 14 appearances by taking apart second-seeded Arcadia, 14-4, at The Claremont Club.
“It feels great. I’m so happy for the girls,” San Marino Coach Melwin Pereira said. “Our toughest match was definitely Claremont (an 11-7 win for San Marino in the semifinals). This match was a little easier because Arcadia did not play us straight up and that hurt them in the second round.”
Many felt the Pacific League-champion Apaches (20-1) carried a slight advantage before the finals because of their top two doubles teams of No. 1 Annie Tung and Elizabeth Lieu and No. 2 Ashley Gao and Tiffany Hsieh, who had dropped only one combined set this postseason.
In a match-changing move, Apaches’ 41-year veteran Coach Jerry Dohling, who is retiring after the season, flipped the order of his doubles players, switching the Tung-Lieu combo to second, Gao and Hsieh to third and moving up the No. 3 squad of Christine Gao and Janice Kim to first.
The move suffered a quick setback, however, when San Marino’s No. 3 squad of senior Andrea Klein and junior Aliki Kvitne upset Ashley Gao and Hsieh, 6-2.
That victory, coupled with a 6-0 triumph from the Titans’ top pair of Larissa Phillips and Madeleine Gandawidjaja, helped Rio Hondo League-champion San Marino (19-3) vault to a 4-2 lead after the first round.
Dohling’s plan then backfired in the second round, as Phillips and Gandawidjaja defeated Tung and Lieu, 6-5, the Titans’ No. 2 team of Lauren Chang and Monique Gandawidjaja topped Ashley Gao and Hsieh, 6-1, and Klein and Kvitne bested Christine Gao and Janice Kim, 6-1.
“This felt really great,” said Kvitne, who was held out versus Claremont, but rebounded to win two sets with Klein on Friday. “I thought the decision was fine on Wednesday, that was best for the team. Today, we were awesome and Andrea and I played like there was no tomorrow.”
Those three victories were joined by singles wins from Titans ace Dorothy Tang over Sharlene Song, 6-0, and a 6-1 victory from San Marino’s No. 3 singles player Vivian Le over Angelica Zhou that secured the Titans five of six points in the second round and a commanding 9-3 lead.
“The idea was to get off to a good start. We felt that we needed to win a couple of sets early in doubles,” Dohling said. “We were also hoping [Apaches top singles player] Francis Dean could get off to a good start and that some of the girls would follow.”
Up, 9-3, Phillips and Madeleine Gandawidjaja secured the championship with a 6-2 victory over Ashley Gao and Hsieh that delivered San Marino the clinching 10th point, while doubles finished a shocking 7-2.
“Doubles is what won this for us,” said Pereira, who later that afternoon watched his daughter Alexis win a Division I championship with Campbell Hall.
The day’s marquee matchup also went the Titans’ way as Tang, the Rio Hondo League champion, exacted some revenge in besting Pacific League titlist Dean, who won the first game, but had her serve and will seemingly broken in surrendering six straight points in a 6-1 loss.
“I really focused on just not missing and playing smart and moving,” said Tang, who won her third team championship and avenged a loss two weeks ago to Dean in USTA action. “I just played my game.”
Tang won her other two sets, 6-0, 6-0, while teammate Devon Jack, who struggled versus Claremont, bounced back in winning three sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
Le, who played doubles versus Claremont, captured two singles 6-0 wins.
“Today I was back in my element playing singles and it felt good,” Le said. “I actually didn’t expect our team to do as well as we did today. I was expecting a really bloody fight against Arcadia and this was easier than expected.”
San Marino’s championship squad also included players Alexandra Gabig, Avni Parkh, Maddi Schmidt, Rebecca Shieh, Emma Tam, Celestine Yeh and Tammy Lee.