Daily Pilot High School Female Athletes of the Week: Mission accomplished for Sage Hill’s Condas and Hung

Senior Nicole Condas and junior Michelle Hung played together a decent amount during the regular season for the Sage Hill School girls’ tennis team.

The Lightning (16-4) accomplished a lot, winning the Academy League for the third straight season and advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, where they lost in the first round to eventual finalist University by a score of 16-2.

All four of Sage Hill’s losses this season came to teams from the uber-competitive Pacific Coast League, also including Division 1 champion Corona del Mar, Division 2 champion Beckman and Northwood.

“Division 1 is hard,” Hung said. “It’s a pattern that’s emerging. We do really well in league, and we’ll have competitive matches against teams that are outside of our league. Then, entering CIF, teams are good. We do our best.”

With the league not as strong and the Division 1 playoffs loaded, the team result was somewhat predictable for Sage Hill. Condas and Hung, though, always had in the back of their minds that they wanted to team up again for the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament.

Condas and Hung felt that they had some unfinished business after losing in the third round of the tournament last year. San Marino’s Sophia Lee and Sabrina Lieu edged them, 7-6, 1-6 and 10-7 in the third-set super-tiebreaker.

Sage Hill coach Cierra Gaytan was all for Condas and Hung making another run at it.

“I encouraged it, because I knew they wanted to get further than last year,” Gaytan said. “They were definitely happy to team up and give it another try.”

Condas and Hung, the Daily Pilot High School Female Athletes of the Week, succeeded. First they won the Academy League doubles title for the first time, beating a team from Oxford Academy after losing in the finals last year to a doubles team from rival St. Margaret’s.

Then came the start of CIF Southern Section Individuals on Nov. 20 at Andulka Park Tennis Center in Riverside. They easily accomplished their goal of getting past the third round. After a first-round bye, they topped Melanie Ramos and Antonella Mazzotti of Rancho Mirage 6-0, 6-1. Condas and Hung then breezed through their third-round match against Dayna Walker and Michelle Miller of Temecula Great Oak, 6-1, 6-2.

The run ended Monday, as Condas and Hung lost 6-0, 7-6 in the round of 32 to Audrey Vo and Olga Nagy of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa. But there was still a sense of accomplishment in being one of the top 32 doubles teams in the entire Southern Section. They finished the season with an impressive 18-4 record together.

Hung had lost in the third round of Individuals as a freshman in 2015 as well, falling there with teammate Izzy Deckey.

“We wanted to see how far we could go this year, and we made it past the third round,” Hung said. “I think we’re both pretty proud of that. We just had a year more experience, which in and of itself is valuable.”

The value that Condas and Hung brought to the Lightning was their hard work. Condas said she has improved a lot as a freshman, a year that she started on junior varsity. She said her volleys improved the most this season, when she was a team captain along with the Lightning’s other five seniors of Deckey, Maya Byrd, Stephanie Beder, Nataly ShayanSmith and Hannah Leigh.

“I definitely felt that I had to always be an example for my younger teammates,” Condas said. “At the end of the day, every practice I would just work hard and try to provide maybe some younger teammates some inspiration. Although I’m not amazing by any means, I was on the top of JV my freshman year and moved up to varsity. Slowly but surely, I got to this point.

“That’s something I’m really proud of, that I worked hard to get where I wanted to be. Really, your mindset is everything. If you want to elevate your tennis, you just have to work hard at it.”

Hung also worked hard. She said her serve has improved a lot since she was a freshman. She had some impressive singles wins during the regular season, including a 7-5 win over Michelle Hyun of Whitney during league play. Hyun went on to win the league singles title and advance to the third round at CIF Individuals.

Like many of their peers at Sage Hill, Condas and Hung are very invested academically. Condas is currently taking Advanced Placement classes in computer science, art history, economics and Calculus BC. She also plays violin in the orchestra.

Hung is in Advanced Placement U.S. History and economics, and advanced classes in mathematics, biology and English, along with Latin.

Despite the challenging course loads, both Condas and Hung have grade-point averages above 4.0. On the tennis court, they also made the grade.

“Over the years, we’ve developed good ways to work together,” Hung said. “If one of us is having a good serving day, the other person will poach more. We know each other’s habits, and that really helps us, especially if it’s a challenging match.”

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Nicole Condas

Born: April 19, 2000

Hometown: Irvine

Height: 5 feet 4

Sport: Tennis

Year: Senior

Coach: Cierra Gaytan

Favorite food: Grapes

Favorite movie: “Shrek”

Favorite athletic moment: Advancing past the third round of the CIF Southern Section Individuals doubles tournament this year with partner Michelle Hung.

Week in review: Condas and partner Michelle Hung won twice at the CIF Southern Section Individuals sectional Nov. 20 at Andulka Park Tennis Center in Riverside, advancing to the round of 32.

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Michelle Hung

Born: March 12, 2001

Hometown: Irvine

Height: 5 feet 5

Sport: Tennis

Year: Junior

Coach: Cierra Gaytan

Favorite food: Cherries

Favorite movie: “The Princess Bride”

Favorite athletic moment: Winning the Academy League doubles title with partner Nicole Condas this season, defeating a team from Oxford Academy in the final.

Week in review: Hung and partner Nicole Condas won twice at the CIF Southern Section Individuals sectional Nov. 20 at Andulka Park Tennis Center in Riverside, advancing to the round of 32.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo