Sea Kings’ loss still good enough for a championship

Despite losing the match, Corona del Mar wins Pacific Coast League title after tiebreaker victory in the final set of the day.LAGUNA BEACH -- Corona del Mar head tennis coach Brian Ricker was smiling, even after the Sea Kings lost, 10-8, to Laguna Beach Tuesday.

It wasn’t the loss he was happy about. It was the eight games CdM won in the match.

Despite the loss, the Sea Kings won the Pacific Coast League title Tuesday, clinching the league title on a tiebreaker.

Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar tied with 8-1 conference records. Each team defeated the other at home.

The Pacific Coast League rulebook states that when two teams are tied with the same conference record, head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker is the total number of games won.

Although the Sea Kings lost, 10-8, Tuesday, they beat Laguna Beach, 11-7, on Sept. 29. The one-game advantage was enough to give them the winning margin for the title.

The pace of the match went quickly in doubles sets. The final doubles set was played while the singles were still in their second set.

The third set of doubles and one of the singles sets already completed before the final two sets of the day. The Sea Kings needed only one game to clinch the championship.

Laguna Beach was winning, 9-7, before the final two singles sets were played. In the first of the two, the Breakers’ Claire Reitsch defeated Michelle Atkins, 6-1.

The Sea Kings’ Rachel Miller matched up against Laguna Beach’s Kellie Ammerman in the final set, which went to a seven-point tiebreaker. Miller trailed, 3-0, early in the tiebreaker. However, the senior rebounded for a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker, the set and, most importantly, the title.

Miller took the lead for good at 5-4 in the tiebreaker, on a volley that hit the net and gently rolled over. Two points later, Miller won it with a forehand winner that Ammerman could not match for the win.

Sisters Haley and Miranda Young played a key role in the day for the Sea Kings. The doubles duo won its matches, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.

The freshman class also did its part in the match. The doubles team of Lindsay Zotovich and Danielle Kaiden won their first two sets, 6-0, 6-3, before falling in their third, 6-2. Flora Lee added a 7-5 win over Ammerman in her first match of the day.

“I knew that we would earn our points in doubles. We won sets in doubles, but those were good teams we beat,” said Ricker.

Corona del Mar won six of the nine doubles matches.

“I am very proud of this team. These girls would not quit this year. We lost two great players at the beginning of the year, and they still played strong. There were no bad attitudes on this team,” Ricker said.

Pacific Coast League

Laguna Beach 10,

Corona del Mar 8

Singles -- Miller (CdM) lost to Reitsch, 6-3, lost to Kintsler, 6-2, def. Ammerman 6-4; Atkins (CdM) lost, 6-1, 6-1, 7-6; Fee (CdM) lost 6-1, sub Bryan (CdM) lost 6-0, Lee (CdM) won 7-5.

Doubles -- H. Young-M. Young (CdM) def. Polozois-Ochwat, 6-1, def. Butterwick-Thigpen, 6-2, def. Tran-Robinson, 6-0; Norman-McKitterick (CdM) lost, 6-1, 6-4, won, 7-5; Zotovich-Kaiden (CdM) won, 6-0, lost, 6-2, won, 6-3.20051026ioy4ruknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Corona del Mar’s Hayley Young, playing doubles with sister Miranda, returns a serve during Tuesday’s match against Laguna Beach.