Girls tennis: Holland conquers War by the Shore

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - The name of the War by the Shore Junior Tennis

Classic might soon be changed to the Brittany Holland Bracket-pounding,

No-holds-barred Invitational.

Three years in a row, Holland has entered this event and three years

in a row, Holland has captured her age group’s title. This year, the

Corona del Mar High sophomore-to-be marched her way through the girls 18

singles division and ended the drama with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Irvine’s

Gloriann Lopez.

“I had played her last year in high school,” Holland said. “She goes

to Northwood and she beat me, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.”

Two years ago, Holland won the girls 14 singles title and last year,

she took the girls 16 singles crown.

“I was aggressive, but I also played smart, too,” Holland said.

“There’s a time when you go for the point and there’s times when you need

to be patient. I was able to do that today.”

Holland, who won the Pacific Coast League doubles title with Leslie

Damion, needed a couple of games in the first set to catch up to Lopez’s

hard hitting.

“I was a little bit behind her shots early,” Holland said. “I was

taken back a little bit, but I survived and started to play more

aggressive.”

Aggressive was right. Holland won six of the next seven games to take

the opening set.

“Sometimes, with hard hitters is that they can make their own

mistakes,” Holland said. “I had to sit back a little bit and wait for

those opportunities.”

After Holland’s serve was broken by Lopez to tie the second set, 2-2,

the tournament’s No. 2 seed turned up the juices to take four straight

points off of Lopez’s serve to regain a one-break advantage.

To add an exclamation point, Holland broke Lopez again to end the

match.

“I just tried to focus on each match at hand and be as consistent as

possible,” Holland said. “This really puts me in the right frame of mind

heading into high school competition.”

When Holland returns to Corona del Mar, she will be just one of a

number of standout players, looking to successfully defend its CIF

Southern Section Division IV title, won last year over Calabasas, 13-5.

In that final, Holland and Damion ripped through the Coyotes, 6-3,

6-4, 6-1, in doubles action.

In girls 16 singles action, Newport Beach’s Bonnie Adams’ trip to the

championship come to an end against top-seeded Sarah Flanser, 6-4, 6-0.

Adams will look to be a strong force, once again, for the Newport Harbor

girls tennis squad in the fall.

Adams, unseeded in the tournament, reached the finals following a 6-2,

6-3 win over third-seeded Carolina Velasco, Thursday.

In other finals action, third-seeded Jill Damion played a hard-fought

contest with second-seeded Brittany Rosen, but lost in the girls 14

singles finals, 7-6, 6-0.