HIGH SCHOOLS:CdM already earns stripes

The season has just begun, but the Corona del Mar High girls’ tennis team is already very battle-tested.

CdM earned its stripes last weekend at the California High School Tennis Classic, held in the Fresno suburb of Clovis. It was there that the Sea Kings won the Division I portion of the tournament with a dramatic, 4-3 victory over Northern California powerhouse Monta Vista on Saturday.

“It was so emotional, so fun for the girls,” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said. “That was a good win. It gave us a lot of momentum going into the season.”

The Sea Kings, the defending CIF Southern Section Division I champions, were the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament’s Division I draw, which contained many of the best girls’ tennis programs in Northern California.

But in the format of four singles matches and three doubles, they were down 3-1 in the championship match to Monta Vista, the four-time defending Northern California Division I champions.

Only CdM’s Melissa Matsuoka could win a singles set.

But then the Sea Kings rallied to sweep doubles. Paige Polizois and Rebecca Beyer, as well as Lindsay Zotovich and Karen Ishii, each won to tie the match up at 3-3.

Danielle Kaiden and Kelli Feeley then won a dramatic third-set super tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles, 6-1, 5-7, 10-8, to give the Sea Kings the title over Monta Vista, of Cupertino.

“There were so many positives to what happened up there,” Ricker said. “Kelli Feeley went from being the new girl on varsity to being in the middle of everything. And even the girls who lost, they battled and felt positive walking off the court.”

CdM also beat Davis and St. Francis before surviving a 4-3 win in the semifinals over Archbishop Mitty of San Jose.

VENUE CHANGE

Local water polo teams may still travel to Belmont, but now they’ll only do it when they play Long Beach Wilson.

The CIF Southern Section has announced that beginning this year, the boys’ and girls’ water polo section championship games have moved from Belmont Plaza in Long Beach to Irvine High.

It will mean shorter drives for many of the top water polo teams in the section. In the initial CIF Southern Section Division I boys’ water polo coaches’ poll, seven of the top 10 schools — including the top four of El Toro, Newport Harbor, Northwood and Los Alamitos — are in Orange County.

The complex at Irvine High, also known as the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center, already hosted the CIF Southern Section semifinal matches for water polo and the inaugural CIF Masters Tournament for both boys and girls last season.

BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

With so many players returning, it should be an interesting battle in the four-team Orange Coast League for boys’ water polo this year.

Estancia High graduated no seniors and Sage Hill School graduated just one. Costa Mesa lost a couple of players but also returns much of its core, as well.

Laguna Beach, probably still considered the favorite, lost a lot of seniors, Costa Mesa Coach Justin Taylor said.

So it should be quite a race for the two guaranteed spots into the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs, which went to the Breakers and Lightning last year.