Walters, future rival outlast foes

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — The high-five window for Ali Walters and Alison Ramos is rapidly narrowing on the tennis court.

Walters, a Newport Beach resident, is headed to UCLA next year. Ramos, who just graduated from Troy High in Fullerton, is going to USC.

But, at the 106th annual Southern California Junior Sectional tennis tournament, the future Pac-10 Conference rivals are sharing plenty of goodwill as first-time partners in the girls’ 18 doubles draw.

“We’re pretty good friends off the court, so we decided, ‘Hey, let’s give it a go,’ ” Walters said, before starting to laugh. “We might not be such good friends next year. At least, not on the court.”

Hailey Hogan, another Newport Beach resident, still has two more years left at Corona del Mar High. Don’t tell that to Walters and Ramos, though, after Friday’s semifinal.

The top-seeded team narrowly survived a spirited effort by Hogan and partner Sarah Lee of Los Angeles, finally winning the nearly three-hour match, 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club.

Walters and Ramos advance to the final, where they’ll face No. 3-seeded Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Los Cab.

Walters said she’ll have to be on top of her game in that match, but she’s been on top of her game plenty lately. After leaving CdM early in her sophomore year, she has been home-schooled, with classwork coming through Creekside Christian School.

She said the flexible schedule has allowed her more tournament time. Now, Walters has signed with the Bruins, who won their first NCAA championship in women’s tennis last year.

“I just felt that UCLA was the best fit for me,” said Walters, who will be majoring in business economics. “There’s just so much going on. It’s an amazing school. It’s pretty much my dream school.”

She showed plenty of mettle in Friday’s match, which was close throughout as the scores suggest. Walters and Ramos were up, 4-2, in the first set, but lost four of five games to go down, 6-5. After Ramos held serve, the tie-breaker went to 6-6 before two Ramos winners at the net helped earn the team the set.

“She’s a great partner,” Walters said of Ramos, who’s ranked No. 1 in Southern California in girls’ 18 singles. “I think our personalities do really well together. She’s a little bit more fiery, and I’m little more laid back.”

But Hogan and Lee, who attends Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, fought back. They broke Ramos’ serve early in the second set, and held the break until Hogan was broken serving at 5-4. However, Hogan and Lee broke Ramos’ serve again, then Lee held serve to win the set, 7-5, and even the match.

“We thought we could win, but that was so cool that we hung in there,” Hogan said. “They’re so well-known, so experienced, so much older than we are. It was an honor to play with them, but we still wanted to beat them.”

The third set was also back-and-forth. At one point, there were six straight breaks of serve, until Ramos held to give her team a 6-5 lead. Lee held to force a decisive tiebreaker.

Hogan and Lee opened up a 5-4 lead in the ’breaker, but Walters and Ramos rallied. Walters’ volley that hit the net and crawled over gave her team a match point, which it converted when Lee’s volley went wide.

“Those girls were younger, not much to lose there, and they really played well,” Walters said. “They played awesome. They were the underdogs, and they stepped it up. They took control of the net a lot better than we did; I think that’s one thing we’re going to change [in the final].”

All players involved were glad to get off the court, still warm at nearly 8 p.m. They all played five sets of tennis Friday, counting two sets of singles earlier in the day.

Walters has a Round of 16 singles match today in the girls’ 18s draw, as does Hogan in the girls’ 16s draw. Walters said she has never won a title at the Junior Sectionals.

“I have a really tough singles match [today],” she said of her meeting with No. 2-seeded Catherine Isip. “Hopefully I just play my game, not worry about winning or losing.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.