Ricker’s moves pay off

MANHATTAN BEACH — On the other end of the tennis court where the Corona del Mar High girls gathered, the opposing coach talked about ceramics.

One Mira Costa player asked Coach Joe Cipsulli if she could skip the mandatory ceramics class meeting. He said no. She shrugged her shoulders after the Sea Kings had carefully crafted a formula for success against her Mustangs.

Against a nationally-ranked player, CdM chose to move its top two singles players to the bottom spots, shaping the CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal match in the Sea Kings’ favor.

Coach Brian Ricker’s singles’ project looked like a piece of art, as No. 3-seeded CdM jumped out to a comfortable lead and never looked back, beating No. 5 Mira Costa, 11-7, with their usual strong doubles play helping out at Manhattan Beach Country Club Tuesday.

The Sea Kings (19-2) advance to their fourth straight semifinal appearance under Ricker. It’s a familiar place for Ricker, who before coming to CdM guided Laguna Beach to the semis in back-to-back years.

But the only other time during the previous five years one of his teams advanced past the semifinals was last year, when CdM capped a 24-0 season with a section championship.

In the way this year is No. 2-seeded Troy, which moved on after beating Peninsula, 13-5. When the Sea Kings play at Troy Thursday they’ll be prepared. How can they forget the Freeway League champ after it ended the Sea Kings’ 27-match winning steak dating back to last year? Ricker has the score sheet like it was a part of a wedding album. He flipped to the page and it read: Troy 10, CdM 8 at CdM.

But CdM has changed since the Sept. 18 meeting. One switch came in doubles, where Paige Polizois partnered up with fellow junior Daniel Kaiden on the No. 2 team. Polizois played singles against Troy and Ricker said she dropped each set. Now with Kaiden, the duo gives CdM a one-two punch in doubles behind juniors Lindsay Zotovich and Karen Ishii.

Polizois and Kaiden took two sets and so did sophomores Kelli Feeley and Elizabeth Nguyen against Mira Costa (17-6). Zotovich and Ishii swept their sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1, figuring they had to because the last time CdM played Mira Costa, it won, 10-8.

“We weren’t coming in going, ‘OK guys! It’s just a daily routine,’ ” Ishii said.

The only thing CdM anticipated was losing each set to Mira Costa’s No. 1 singles player, Nicole Gibbs, who is ranked in the top 10 by the USTA for 18-and-under players.

The freshman-sensation toyed with the Sea Kings, but Ricker set the lineup with his top two players, Melissa Matsuoka and Hailey Hogan, avoiding her at the start by inserting them in the second and third slots, respectively. It worked.

Matsuoka still had to battle to make it work. The sophomore fought back from a 4-1 deficit in her opening set before winning, 6-4.

“That put us up, 4-2, after the first round instead of being [tied], 3-3,” said Ricker, who received two wins from Matsuoka and Hogan. “We actually got a tough quarterfinal match. We actually should’ve played Peninsula, because we’re a No. 3 seed and [Peninsula] is a No. 6 seed, but because Mira Costa and the fourth seed, Palos Verdes, are from the same league, they had to go on the opposite [sides of the] bracket.

“[Troy also has] a tough singles lineup. [It] has an outstanding No. 1 singles player, Alison Ramos. She’s top 10 in the nation. She’s got a full scholarship to USC next year.”

Ricker can wait to mold together another winner.

CIF Southern Section

Division I playoffs

Quarterfinal

Corona del Mar 11, Mira Costa 7

Singles – Stimac (CdM) lost to Gibbs, 0-6, lost to Langley, 1-6, (sub) Azemi (CdM) lost to Wahba, 0-6; Matsuoka (CdM) lost, 1-6, won, 6-4, 6-1; Hogan (CdM) lost, 2-6, won, 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles – Zotovich-Ishii (CdM) def. Bradley-Oliker, 6-1, def. Mahr-Cleland, 6-3, def. Bothwell-Reed, 6-1; Polizois-Kaiden (CdM) won, 6-1, 7-5, lost, 6-7 (4); Feeley-Nguyen (CdM) won, 6-3, 6-1, lost, 6-7 (5).

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