Breakers competitive at CIF Individuals

NEWPORT BEACH “” A successful year came to a close Nov. 20 for the Laguna Beach High girls’ tennis team, as senior Maddie Jaeger and two doubles teams closed their season out at CIF Individuals.

Jaeger advanced to the third round in singles before losing to Kaitlyn Christian of Orange Lutheran, 6-0, 6-3, at The Tennis Club. She got a default win in the first round then got past Alexis Valenzuela of West Covina, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round. Jaeger, the Orange Coast League singles champion, was down 3-0 in the first set before rallying.

“I was really happy with how I was playing toward the end [of the season],” said Jaeger, who swept in singles in the Breakers’ CIF Southern Section Division I second-round loss to Mira Costa. “I thought as a team we did really well. CIF was really tough but I’m glad we finished the way we did.”

The doubles team of junior Bianca Sganga and sophomore Claire Jaeger got to the second round. After breezing past Tiffanie Nguyen and Kaitlyn Antonio of La Sierra in the first round, 6-1, 6-1, they were outlasted by Mater Dei’s Neda Ghassemi and Jordyn Kearney, 2-6, 6-3, 6-10 in a third-set super-tiebreaker. The league doubles champions fell behind, 7-1, in the super-tiebreaker and double-faults were part of the problem.

“I think we kind of loosened up a little bit,” Sganga said of the tandem rallying after dropping the first set. “The people we played were really good so I’m happy we lost to them.”

The Breakers’ other doubles team at the tournament, Aliison Azera and McKenna Nokes, got a default win in the first round before losing to Kyra Scott and Hayley Thompson of University High in the second round, 6-0, 6-0. But they played well, despite the score, Coach Alec Horton said.

“The score wasn’t indicative of where the match was,” Horton said. “As you get into CIF Individuals, it becomes a different ball of wax.”

Horton was especially proud of Maddie Jaeger, who had overcome sickness earlier in the week to make her run to the third round.

“I thought she played real well against Mira Costa, the best she’s played all year for sure,” Horton said. “Hopefully she can carry it on into college. For her, the sky’s the limit.”