CdM dominates Northwood

CORONA DEL MAR — While defending champion Corona del Mar High was favored heading into Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division I second-round girls’ tennis match against former Pacific Coast League rival Northwood at CdM, the third-seeded Sea Kings knew not to overlook the Timberwolves.

After all, Northwood was the champion of the Sea View League.

“It’s unusual to play another league champion so early [in the playoffs],” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said. “But as it turns out, our draw set us up well.”

With Northwood missing some key performers, the match wasn’t even close, as the host Sea Kings (18-2) dominated in both singles and doubles, winning 17-1, and advancing to Tuesday’s quarterfinals at Mira Costa (17-5) in Manhattan Beach.

The Timberwolves were completely overmatched, particularly in doubles, where CdM swept all nine sets, winning 54 of 60 games. CdM has yet to lose a doubles set through two rounds of the CIF playoffs.

“We have a lot of depth in doubles,” Ricker said. “That’s our strong point. They’ve been playing the best they have all year, and we’re going to need them against the better schools in the next few rounds of playoffs.”

In singles, No. 1 Hailey Hogan swept at love. Melissa Matsuoka, the No. 2 singles player, dropped only one game in two sets, and No. 3 Kate Stimac won her only set of the day, 6-4. Ricker used subsitutes for the other singles matches.

“We have a lot of talented girls who work hard,” Ricker said.

The Sea Kings’ depth, particularly in doubles, is exemplified by the fact that at the PCL finals last weekend, the doubles semifinals and finals were made up entirely of Corona del Mar teams.

In the playoffs, juniors Danielle Kaiden and Paige Polizois have swept all six sets in two matches, winning by a combined score of 36 games to one. On Saturday, the pair made quick work of Northwood, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0.

“We expected a tougher test,” said Polizois. “Even though we didn’t play our best, we still did well.”

“We’re different players with different strengths,” said Kaiden. “But we blend together well.”

Corona del Mar will count on its depth against Mira Costa. In the first match of the year, the Sea Kings narrowly defeated the Mustangs, 10-8, at Corona del Mar.

Mira Costa advanced to the quarterfinals with a 15-3 win over Chaminade on Saturday.

CIF Southern Section

Division I playoffs

Second round

Corona del Mar 17, Northwood 1

Singles – Hogan (CdM) def. Pattugalen, 6-0, def. Kan, 6-0, def. Jacdi, 6-0; Matsuoka (CdM) won, 6-1, 6-0, (sub) Beyer (CdM) won, 6-4; Nazemi (CdM) lost, 2-6, won, 6-4, (sub) Stimac (CdM) won, 6-4.

Doubles – Zotovich-Ishii (CdM) def. Wong-Greenberg, 6-0, def. Pashalides-Nguyen, 6-0, def. Ross-Drakcilas, 6-2; Kaiden-Polizois (CdM) won, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0; Nguyen-Feeley (CdM) won, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.