Huntington Beach girls’ tennis falls at San Marino in CIF Division 1 semifinals
The Huntington Beach High dominant girls’ tennis season came to a difficult end Wednesday against San Marino.
The Oilers fell 76-63 on games after playing to a 9-9 match score at San Marino High School. The battle came down to the final three doubles sets to decide who would advance to the Division 1 final.
Huntington Beach head coach Patrick Wright saw an inspiring performance from his team in a match he knew would be close.
“The entire team is a lot deeper and a lot stronger,” he said. “All these matches that we won that were close were a team effort for the most part. Last year we were relying on our singles to get eight or nine wins. I knew this match most likely was going to end up 9-9. I was hoping we would have the edge in games, but we didn’t.”
The 13-game edge for No. 2-seeded San Marino (15-1) came on the back of its No. 1 and No. 2 singles players, Olivia Center and Tianmei Wang, who swept all six of their matches convincingly.
Center won 6-2, 6-0, 6-1 while Wang prevailed 6-1, 6-0, 6-0.
“I just try to go point by point,” Center said. “In high school tennis, every game counts. If we tie, we count up the games. I really just try to take it point by point and focus on the point in front of me to do whatever I can to win it.”
Huntington Beach (16-3) had the better of the doubles play, winning six of nine sets. All three doubles pairs, Le Nhi Huynh and Ella Weisman, Sophie Jin-Ngo and Cindy Huynh and Sophia Straub and Isabella Moore, won two of their three sets.
Cindy Huynh, a senior, had a chance to play the season with her two younger sisters, Le Nhi and Yen Nhi.
“It was great,” Cindy Huynh said. “I loved having all of my sisters next to me. It motivated me to do better. We would compete about who would do better each match. It’s kind of fun.”
The match would not have made it to the tiebreaker except for the play of Huntington Beach’s young No. 3 doubles pairing, Straub and Moore.
The pair bounced back from a 6-2 first-set defeat to win their following two sets, both marathon affairs that featured several grueling rallies.
Cindy Huynh, who helps coach the Oilers’ junior varsity team, enjoyed seeing her younger teammates improve during the season.
“I was very proud that they held their own,” she said. “They did the best they could. The amount they’ve improved from the beginning of the season to right now was amazing to see.”
The Oilers stuck in the match despite facing the domination from Center and Wang. Center’s game featured an overpowering serve and pinpoint accuracy that overwhelmed the Oilers’ singles players, including Yen Nhi Huynh, the team’s No. 1.
Still, Huntington Beach competed until the end.
To win, the Oilers needed to sweep the final three sets, all doubles matches. Cindy Huynh and Jin-Ngo made quick work of the San Marino No. 3 doubles pairing of Mandy Rivera and Camdyn Wu.
But the Oilers’ No. 1 pairing of Le Nhi Huynh and Weisman fell to San Marino’s No. 1 team of Elaine Wu and Selina Wu.
Straub and Moore won their final set over the San Marino No. 2 doubles pairing of Valerie Ko and Katie Liu to close out the match and force the tiebreaker, which went to San Marino.
San Marino moves on to Friday’s Division 1 final to face La Cañada High.
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