Falcons come out strong
The Crescenta Valley High and La Salle girls’ tennis teams would like to schedule as many nonleague matches as possible before beginning to compete in their respective leagues.
Playing each other in a nonleague match Monday afternoon turned out to serve as an indicator in finding out more about each team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Crescenta Valley proved it might have a deep team across singles and doubles after it earned a lopsided 17-1 home win in its season opener.
The Falcons swept all nine doubles sets, including three without losing a game. They won eight singles sets, six of which they didn’t lose a game. It was enough to convince second-year Crescenta Valley Coach Sarah Wiggins that her team might have the talent to contend with Arcadia for the Pacific League championship.
“It’s our only chance to play before playing supposedly our toughest rival,” Wiggins said referring to Arcadia, which will meet Crescenta Valley at 3:30 p.m. today at Crescenta Valley. “A match like this is seeing if the doubles teams can do in a real match what they’ve done in practice.
“You want to get the nerves out and you try to work on as many things as possible. I saw a lot of communication from our doubles teams and I saw our players competing until the final point.”
La Salle (1-1) doesn’t begin Camino Del Rey Assn. action until Sept. 22 against Bishop Amat. By then, the Lancers will have participated in seven nonleague contests.
That’s enough time for eighth-year La Salle Coach Tim Pawley to get a handle on his team.
“We are a younger team with experience, so you want to play very strong [nonleague] matches,” Pawley said. “That way they can get themselves better, get to a certain level and into the playoffs.”
The Falcons were led by No. 2 singles player Emily Borkowski, who swept her three sets without losing a game. Karen Ataian, a reigning All-Area selection, won two sets at 6-0. Michelle Choi filled in for Ataian and posted a 6-0 win. Alexa Gregorian won two sets, 6-1, 6-1, for the Falcons.
In doubles competition, Sydney Farzadkish and Jackie Dilanchyan paired up for a sweep, 6-2, 6-0, 6-1. Viktoriya Shumakova and Amanda Lockwood worked together for a pair of wins, 6-0, 6-0. Shumakova and Lockwood were replaced by Sarah Oh and Sarah Yaghoubi, who earned a 6-2 win.
Sally Jo and Alica Nam teamed up for a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 sweep.
La Salle’s lone win came from Chloe Beauvois at 6-1.
