Back bay duo wins boys 12s doubles title

Who said Corona del Mar and Newport Beach are rivals? Chris Damion of

Newport Beach and Corona del Mar’s Omeed Ghassemi don’t think so.

The Back Bay duo won the boys 12s doubles title at the Costa Mesa

Summer Junior Classic at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center. Damion and

Ghassemi defeated Chak-Lam Ng and Darren Ng, 6-1, 6-3 in the

championship match, and finished as two of the three title-winners

among Newport-Mesa players who competed Friday.

Damion and Ghassemi reached the final, edging past Kenneth Ip and

James Raffini, 6-4, 7-6.

In the girls 16s doubles, Jill Damion of Newport Beach and her

partner Laura Moses of Laguna Beach won the girls 16s doubles title

after defeating the top-seeded team Monique Cheung and Melda Tsang,

6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Damion and Moses also defeated Newport Beach’s Sarah Geocaris and

Corona del Mar’s Katie McKitterick, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in an eventful

semifinal match.

Corona del Mar’s Cierra Gaytan-Leach, the No. 5 seed, nearly

captured the girls 12s singles title but lost in a heated final match

against Chun Wing Sher, the No. 2 seed, who won, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

Gaytan-Leach defeated Kaitlyn Christian in a semifinal, 6-3, 6-2.

Gaytan-Leach also came up short in her attempt to win the girls

14s doubles title with Pui Yee Tsang. The doubles team lost to Laguna

Niguel’s Brooke Pletcher and South Laguna’s Christina Tan, 6-1, 6-2,

in a semifinal match.

Diana Khoury and A.J. Olson, a doubles team which also pairs up

for the Newport Harbor High girls tennis squad, lost in the final of

the girls 18s doubles. They lost to the Irvine duo of Jessica Janner

and Cali Rozenovich, 1-6, 6-3, 4-6.