Fountain Valley girls' tennis advances to first CIF final with win over Sage Hill

Fountain Valley's Nghi Trinh competes in a No. 2 singles set against Sage Hill.

By Andrew TurnerStaff Writer

May 19, 2021 8:43 PM PT

Midway through the third round of match play, Fountain Valley High School tennis coach Harshul Patel made his way over to a bench all alone and began crying tears of joy.

The Barons had just clinched Wednesday’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 semifinal match, and Patel needed a moment to process it.

Fountain Valley defeated Sage Hill 11-7 at home, advancing to the first section championship match in program history.

Awaiting the No. 2-seeded Barons in the Division 3 final will be top-seeded Villa Park on Friday. Villa Park beat Valencia of Placentia 15-3 in its semifinal match.

“We’re competing very hard, and we’re going somewhere,” Patel said. “Those are joyous moments, like a dream come true for a coach, a dream come true for me, a dream come true for my players, my girls, who have worked so hard to achieve this moment.

“They never looked back, and they had only one goal in front of them, that we want to win the [Wave] League, no questions asked, and what we can do in the CIF, that would be our bonus.”

Fountain Valley's Tiffany Hoang competes in a singles set against Sage Hill during a CIF Division 3 semifinal.

Iris Chau and Skylar Ngo swept at No. 3 doubles for the Barons, the only spot in the Fountain Valley lineup to do so.

The Barons (17-4) celebrated reaching the finals on the courts when the match concluded, which was a moment that Chau longed to enjoy with a group that she considers to be family.

“Not only are we playing amazing tennis, but just these people, they’re like my family,” Chau said. “I love them so much, and they’re always here for me on and off the courts. It’s good to celebrate with them because we worked so hard to get this spot.”

Fountain Valley racked up a total of six doubles sets, getting two from the pairing of Kaylee Tran and Emily Tran, plus one more from the team of Paige Ngo and Christy Chau.

Sage Hill coach Whit Kenerson said the Lightning had difficulty adjusting within the match to the Barons’ doubles strategy of utilizing the lob as a defensive mechanism.

Fountain Valley's Kaylee Tran, right, scores as she and No. 1 doubles partner Emily Tran, left, compete against Sage Hill.

Kaylee Tran said that the Barons grappled with the idea of playing the indirect form of tennis at first, but they have learned patience and it has led to consistency.

“It’s taken so much patience and so much learning and just so much experience from our team to actually be able to know, ‘OK, this is when we’re going to lob,’” she said. “And if we get a chance, then we’re going to take that shot that we’ve always wanted to take.”

Nghi Trinh and Tiffany Hoang each earned two set victories in singles for the Barons. It was Trinh’s third-round win against Ava Cohen that clinched the match and the finals spot for Fountain Valley.

Sophie Vu also took one set in singles to cap Fountain Valley’s sensational semifinal.

Sage Hill's Halle Parker competes in singles against Fountain Valley during a CIF Southern Section Division 3 semifinal.

Sage Hill, the No. 3 seed, was led by Halle Parker, who dropped just a single game across her three matches in singles. Jazi Aftabi also won one singles set for the Lightning (18-2).

Jackie Hu and Sunny Sun, the No. 3 pairing, led the doubles effort for the Lightning with two sets won, while Kana Byrd and Ava Herin accounted for the other set win.

Kenerson described the season as “huge” for a young Sage Hill squad. Sage Hill was the San Joaquin League champion this season.

“We lost one match to Mater Dei, who was a Division 1 phenomenal team,” Kenerson said. “This was our second loss of the season, but we dominated our league, and we had a shorter season so we couldn’t find as many out-of-league teams to prepare us as best as we possibly could.”