Crescenta Valley Falcons can’t solve rival Arcadia

LA CRESCENTA — Despite some lineup shuffling and a change of scenery, the Crescenta Valley High girls’ tennis team wasn’t able to make up any ground on Arcadia when the rivals met for the second time this season in Pacific League play on Tuesday.

In fact, the Falcons fared slightly worse in their most recent 16-2 defeat at home after losing to the Apaches, 15-3, on the road on Sept. 6, but Falcons Coach Sam Hyun couldn’t really fault his team’s effort.

“I cannot blame them, they did their best, but score-wise, we are worse than last time,” said Hyun, whose team fell to 9-4 and 5-3 in league, staying in third place. “But I am impressed that they fought hard.

“Overall, performance-wise, we did better.”

Admittedly, most of Hyun’s moves had as much to do with his team’s injuries as they did with strategizing against Arcadia (11-0, 7-0), as some of the Falcons’ top doubles players are still dealing with various aches and pains.

Although still nursing a knee injury, Jacqueline Dilanchyan was back with No. 1 doubles partner Viktoriya Shumakova, while Sarah Yaghoubi, who teamed with Shumakova for a sweep in the Falcons’ 13-5 loss to Burbank on Sept. 20, sat out Tuesday with a calf injury.

Hyun placed Alexa Grigoryan, who has often played in the No.1 singles slot this season, in No. 3 doubles with Selin Ayvazian and the pair came through with the Falcons’ lone doubles win, 6-4, over Arcadia’s No. 3 team of Christine Gao and Janice Kim.

“Alexa was practicing doubles for preparation against Burbank, so Alexa has really been improving in doubles,” Hyun said. “They won their first match against [Arcadia’s] No. 3. That was encouraging.”

Dilanchyan and Shumakova nearly took a set from Gao and Kim, forcing a tiebreaker, but losing, 7-0, to fall into a sweep on the day.

“Jacqueline is still not 100%,” Hyun said. “I would call it about 50%. She couldn’t move today, she was limping, but in that kind of condition, she tried very hard.”

In singles, Crescenta Valley No. 1 Natalie Davidian beat Apaches No. 3 Sharlene Song, 7-5, but other than that, it was a rough go for the Falcons, who were beaten, 42-5, in singles games.