Girls tennis: CdM proves its worth, Harbor improving

Steve Virgen

CORONA DEL MAR - While one team presses on -- remaining competitive

-- losing seven seniors from last year, the other team continues to

display its rich talent.

The Back Bay rivalry in girls tennis for this year featured one team,

Newport Harbor High, No. 8 in Orange County and as gritty as they come.

And the other, Corona del Mar, No. 1 in Orange County with yet another

performance worthy of its ranking.

Playing without one of its top players, Brittany Reitz, the Sea Kings

defeated the Sailors in a nonleague match, 14-4, at CdM Wednesday. Reitz,

who is out because of illness, is expected to play today at University.

On Wednesday, with the poise of champions, CdM (16-2) swept in singles

and took five of nine doubles matches.

Most of the action of the rivalry matchup came in doubles.

“We were really excited for this one because they are our rivals,”

said CdM junior Leslie Damion, who teamed with Kristen Griffith to sweep

the Sailors (11-6). “We really wanted to win. We knew we were going to

find a way to win.”

Damion and Griffith won the doubles title last year in the Pacific

Coast League and against Newport Harbor the two renewed their

championship style of play, especially in their first set victory, 6-2,

over Harbor’s Megan Hawkins and Vanessa Dunlap.

The Sea King duo continually found holes in Harbor’s side of the net.

With solid returns and opportune volleys, Damion and Griffith took

control early.

“(Griffith is) my old doubles partner, so we can get back together

easily,” Damion said. “She is usually more tense and I try to relax her.

Our two personalities work well together.”

Damion and Griffith broke Harbor’s serve to win the sixth game and

close out the set.

When facing the Sailors’ No. 3 team, CdM’s No. 1 pair struggled at

first. The Harbor freshman duo of A.J. Olson and Bonnie Adams jumped out

to a 2-0 lead against Damion and Griffith. Both teams showed much emotion

as CdM soothed its nerves to hold off Harbor.

“(Olson and Adams) played better than what I expected,” Griffith said

after the 6-3 victory. “This shows that we always have to come out and

play good. I was more frustrated with the way I was playing than with

what they were doing.”

Olson and Adams were doing plenty to give Harbor Coach Fletcher Olson

reason for optimism about the future.

Said Damion, “We went out there thinking, “This is the No. 3 team,

we’re going to blow by them. We totally underestimated them.”

The Harbor tandem were prepared to play from the outset. Olson showed

great emotion after each point as she would smack Adams’ hand and say,

“Let’s go Bonnie! This game is ours.”

“Once we stepped on the court we believed we could win,” Adams said.

“They played well to beat us.”

Though Olson and Adams didn’t earn a victory, Harbor took four sets in

doubles with Hawkins-Dunlap winning a pair and Krista McIntosh and Kelly

Nelson also earning two.

“There is a lot of emotion when you play CdM,” said Coach Olson. “CdM

is the No. 1 team. We knew we would have a great match.”

NONLEAGUE

Corona del Mar 14, Newport Harbor 4

Singles - Yelsey (CdM) def. D. Khoury, 6-0, def. C. Khoury, 6-0, def.

Buder, 6-0; Singer (CdM) won 6-2, 6-3, 6-1; Holland (CdM) won 6-3, 6-1,

6-0.

Doubles - Damion-Griffith (CdM) def. Hawkins-Dunlap, 6-2, def.

McIntosh-Nelson, 6-1, def. Olson-Adams, 6-3; Tenerelli-Claster (CdM) lost

5-7, 5-7, won 6-1; Mutkz-Minna (CdM) lost 3-6, 5-7, won 6-4.