Doubles rules day for CV in opening CIF win over Fullerton

Heading down the stretch in the regular season, the Crescenta Valley High girls’ tennis team gained steam by turning to its doubles pairings for crucial points.

They came through again for the Falcons on Tuesday afternoon during a CIF Southern Section Division II wild-card road match against Fullerton.

Crescenta Valley won eight of nine doubles sets, including sweeps from Viktoriya Shumakova and Jackie Dilanchyan and Sarah Oh and Angela Seo en route to an 11-7 victory.

Crescenta Valley (13-5) will next meet third-seeded Santa Monica in a first-round match at 2 p.m. today at Santa Monica.

“I thought we played extremely well in doubles again,” said Crescenta Valley first-year Coach San Hyun, whose team took third in the Pacific League. “To only lose that one doubles set is good, and we know that doubles will again be the big thing against Santa Monica.

“We are really excited to play Santa Monica. They have some real good players.”

Shumakova and Dilanchyan worked together to sweep, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. The Falcons’ No. 2 doubles team of Oh and Seo posted a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory. Annie Park and Ashley An won two doubles sets, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) for Crescenta Valley.

Dilanchyan, who advanced to the league semifinals with Shumakova, said the Falcons needed to win the majority of their doubles sets to top Fullerton (11-6-1).

“It’s big that we could do that,” Dilanchyan said. “It’s nice for Viktoriya and I to win in three sets.

“We’ve been working hard at getting better.”

Crescenta Valley also received a pair of singles wins from No. 1 player Alexa Gregorian, who battled back pain the last several days. Gregorian, who also reached the semifinals in the league tournament, began with a 7-5 win and finished with a 6-1 victory. Seline Auvazian also picked up a 6-2 singles victory.