Let’s jump right into all the good stuff that is going on around the county.

Troy's Stefanie Villajuan played well for her team in a victory over Valencia on Thursday.

Here are 10 things I know so far:

1. There is one easy way to sneak into the top 10 rankings – beat a top-10 team. Northwood did just that when it knocked off Santa Margarita, 9-9 (winning on game points 80-73). The polls are not final yet, but don’t be surprised to see the Timberwolves in the No. 10 spot.

2. Here are three college commits that I know of so far: Dana Hills Kristina Smith (UC Irvine), Esperanza’s Melanie Abella (Concordia University) and Troy’s Stefanie Villajuan (Louisville). To the rest of the O.C. coaches: Send me an e-mail to let me know if you have a player who has made a commitment.

3. Sage Hill has a very interesting group of players named Billingsley. In fact, there are two of them: Devy, a sophomore, and Rian, a freshman. They are versatile enough to play singles or doubles.

4. Laguna Beach is starting to make a bid to get into the top 10 with impressive wins over San Clamente, 12-6, and Edison, 15-2. Alex Tachovsky, a sophomore who transferred in from the Chris Everett tennis school in Florida, is undefeated at 12-0 and so is Madeline Jaeger (15-0). It must be nice to have a one-two punch that is a combined 27-0 thus far.

5. The title of best freshman in the county might go to El Modena’s Krista Hardebeck, who just finished winning the Los Caballeros girls 16’s title. Need more proof? How about a love match against Esperanza (6-0, 6-0, 6-0).

6. Game of the day: Esperanza at El Dorado. If the Aztecs want to stay in the top 10 they need to find a way to get a quality victory on the road against the Golden Hawks. There is no doubt Esperanza is good, now all it has to do is prove it belongs among the county’s elite teams.

7. Some people might wonder why Troy is still ranked so high even after losing to Corona del Mar and University. Thursday’s win should give those naysayers their answer. The Warriors squeaked out a 9-9 victory (winning on game points, 70-69) over Valencia. The match could not have been any closer as both teams tied up the match on three occasions, 3-3, 6-6 and 9-9. Troy’s Stefanie Villajuan swept at No. 1 singles, 7-5, 6-0, 6-1, and Allison Radde and Stephanie Hui swept at No. 1 doubles.

“I’m very proud of how Troy has stayed positive through injuries and loses in the early season, and how well they played under pressure to squeeze out this win,” Troy coach Donna Judd said. 

“Everyone contributed. The match was the way high school tennis should be -exciting, competitive, and played in a sportsmanship manner. Valencia is a quality team and the match obviously could have gone either way.”

Valencia won six of the nine singles sets and Troy won six of the nine doubles sets.

8. Laguna Hills (8-1 overall) had one slight miscue this week, losing to Woodbridge, 10-8. The Hawks won eight of the nine singles matches, but got swept in doubles by the Warriors. Laguna Hills dominated the competition the rest of the week, beating Trabuco Hills, 15-3, El Toro, 17-1, and Fountain Valley, 15-3.

Setting the pace at singles was Jocelyn Lu and Araian Mokhtari, who finished 24-0 over the week. Both players are 26-1 overall, their only loss came at the hands of Kaitlyn Christian of Orange Lutheran – the No. 3-ranked player in Southern California.

9. Corona del Mar is the real deal. The Sea Kings easily defeated Northwood, 16-2, an impressive win against a high quality team. Corona del Mar’s superstar freshman, Katelyn Nguyen, defeated Northwood’s highly touted Courtney Pattaugalan, 6-3, and Melissa Kan, 6-2, before being subbed out. Paige Polizois and Elizabeth Nguyen both won two sets in singles. The Sea Kings dominated the doubles action. Karen Ishii and Kelli Feeley swept, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1. Danielle Kaiden and Lindsay Zotovich also swept winning 6-1, 6-1, 6-0. The No. 3 team of Rebecca Beyer and Azadeh Nazemi won 6-0, 6-2. Even the subs, Aureil O’neil and Betsy Murray, won one set, 7-6.

10. Another team that seems to be rolling along is University (4-0). The Trojans defeated Tesoro, 15-3, sweeping all nine matches at doubles. University might have won 17-1 if its top singles player had shown up to the match.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.