Tucker keeps head in game

NEWPORT BEACH — All alone, no one nearby, just Laney Tucker and her opponent, the balls casually going back and forth. No pressure, the balls hit like pop-ups in baseball.

Then everyone flocked to their tennis court, both Tucker’s Sage Hill School teammates and rival St. Margaret’s.

Court No. 10, the far end court at Balboa Bay Racquet Club, where Tucker didn’t expect this pivotal Academy League match would come down to her last singles set.

Up early, unaware all Sage Hill needed was her to win to beat St. Margaret’s Wednesday. Then with St. Margaret’s substitute, Francis Lydon, closing in, and seeing Sage Hill and the Tartans sitting down on the court to her right, Tucker sought time for herself.

Nowhere to go with the gate closed. If she could, Tucker would poke her head out of one of those holes to the left to get away. The fence was too high for her to climb, so she tried something else to calm her nerves, turn and face the fence to her back.

“I just needed like a moment, you know, to breathe and stuff,” said Tucker before regrouping and allowing Sage Hill to breathe a sigh of relief.

Tucker beat Lydon, 6-3, as the Lightning won 10-8, handing St. Margaret’s its first lost of the year. Finally the junior could open the gate, where teammates awaited to mob Tucker and congratulate her.

Coach A.G. Longoria, used to winning almost every time in the previous four years, saw the Lightning strike again. Now the Lightning, ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division IV, are 9-4 and 5-0 in league, more importantly they’re ahead of St. Margaret’s (11-1, 5-1), ranked No. 3.

“We’re just trying to get back to the big show. This is very important for [playoff] seeding, because we want to be seeded second [behind top-ranked Valencia],” said Longoria, who last year guided Sage Hill to a runner-up finish at section after a first-place showing in league. “We lost nine seniors from last year. I only have one returning [player]. We lost seven starters, so all these girls are basically JV players.”

One of those JV players is Tucker, a former No. 1 singles player. She finally flexed her muscle, a sign that she and the rest of the Lightning are ready to make a run at another section title. In the last four years, they’ve advanced to the semifinals twice, finished second, and won the whole thing a couple of years ago.

Tucker looked confident playing as the No. 2 singles player with the normal player, Jaclyn Smrecek, battling the flu. Tucker boasted while posing for photos with her teammates. She had good reason to, winning her first set, 6-4, and then losing 6-0 to St. Margaret’s top player, Hayley Miller, before closing it out at 6-3.

But everyone lost their singles sets to Miller, the talented lefty.

Against the rest, Sage Hill owned the singles sets.

With Smrecek’s performance at No. 3 under the weather, coughing as loud as her two 6-0 victories against St. Margaret’s No. 2 and No. 3 singles players, Sage Hill won six of the nine singles sets. Julia Blakeley, the No. 1 singles player, won two, each at 6-0.

Sage Hill’s No. 2 doubles team of Isa-Marie Taskinen and Kelly Chang also performed strong at the end. It won its last set, 7-5, making it Sage Hill’s lone doubles team to win twice.

Longoria will need another similar performance the next time Sage Hill plays St. Margaret’s if it plans to win its fourth league championship in the last five years.

“We have to play them at their place next week,” said Longoria, whose team swept St. Margaret’s in league last year. “But they’ll have to beat us.”

Academy League

Sage Hill School 10, St. Margaret’s 8

Singles – Blakeley (SH) lost to Miller, 1-6, def. Hess, 6-0, def. Hurr, 6-0; Tucker (SH) lost, 0-6, won, 6-4, def. (sub) Lydon, 6-3; Smrecek (SH), lost, 1-6, won, 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles – Goodman-Cochran (SH) def. Walsh-Davis, 6-0, def. Allan-Hess, 6-3, lost to Haddad-Brooks, 6-7 (2-7); Taskinen-Chang, won, 6-4, lost, 3-6, won, 7-5; Choi-Murray (SH), won, 7-6 (7-3), lost, 4-6, lost, 1-6.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.