Sailors open league with win

Senior Elle Zielinski and junior Lily Walkow are not typically known as two of the more vocal members of the Newport Harbor High girls’ tennis team.

In Thursday afternoon’s Sunset League opener against Fountain Valley, though, both Zielinski and Walkow proved that they wouldn’t give an inch.

Zielinski, partnered with Olivia Zehnder, got fired up after Fountain Valley doubles opponents Caroline Ta and Brianna Lau questioned her “out” call on the baseline on Newport Harbor’s set point.

“It’s right here,” Zielinski said animatedly, pointing her racket about a foot past the baseline to show where the ball landed.

Walkow, meanwhile, nearly called for a line judge in her third singles match, before deciding against it and closing out the set.

Passion was needed. The Sailors knew that Fountain Valley would make them work for every point. Last year both of the teams’ league matches went to games after they were tied 9-9, with each team winning one of the matches.

Thursday’s match wasn’t quite as close, as the Sailors opened league with a 12-6 win over the Barons on the Newport Harbor courts.

The Sailors (7-1, 1-0 in league) won seven of nine doubles sets. Kendall Cosenza and Anna Burke swept at No. 1 doubles, while the teams of Zielinski and Zehnder, as well as juniors Taryn Anderson and Eva Newsom at No. 3 doubles, each won twice.

Zielinski and Zehnder were involved in three close sets. The first was big, as they beat Vivian Ly and Ruth Nguyen, 7-5, to close out the first round and give the Sailors a 4-2 advantage.

“It’s definitely big to go into each round with one extra win on the board,” Newport Harbor Coach Kristen Case said. “Especially throughout preseason, we played a lot of matches where we were lucky enough to be up going into the third round. And then we had that Sage match [Tuesday] where we were actually down going into the third round [but rallied to win 10-8]. I’m very grateful that we’ve had opportunities to be in both situations. I believe it’s really prepared us to treat each round with a clean slate mindset.”

Newport Harbor would go on to win each round, 4-2, against Fountain Valley. Zielinski and Zehnder, in their second year playing varsity doubles together as they also played two years ago as sophomores, went on to beat Ta and Lau, 6-4, in that second set before falling to Vikki Nguyen and Giao Phan, 7-6 (7-5), in their third set.

“It just kind of shocked me I guess, since it was match point and such an important point, for them to question it,” Zielinski said of her disputed call on set point in the second match. “It kind of just hit me all at once.”

Added Zehnder: “And, [the shot] was very out. We were all fired up about the win, and to be questioned right when you win, you’re caught off-guard I guess.”

Senior Jenn Kingsley, still battling sickness and a nagging cough, won twice at No. 1 singles for Newport Harbor. Walkow won twice at No. 2 singles and Hannah Blower captured her final set at No. 3 singles.

Sophomore Hanh Pham, last year’s Sunset League singles champion, swept for Fountain Valley (3-6, 0-1). But the Barons, who finished tied for second in league with Newport Harbor last year, do not have sophomore standout Katherine Nguyen this year. Coach Harshul Patel said Nguyen is focusing more on tournament tennis and has also been dealing with injuries.

“We are really having a rough start,” said Patel, who only got three other set wins besides Pham’s sweep.

The Sailors, ranked No. 6 in Orange County by the Register, can’t say the same. As Case told them after the match, they look like the team to beat in league. Newport Harbor has not won the league since 2011.

“It was a huge team effort today, which was great,” Case said. “It’s really nice when everyone steps up and contributes. It was just great energy all across the board ... Fountain Valley is a good team, a very solid team and they always make us play hard. We knew that we had to come out really prepared to go after what we wanted, because Fountain Valley wasn’t going to hand us anything. We had to have that little bit of an edge, otherwise they’re going to take it from you.”

The Sailors play at Huntington Beach on Tuesday before playing host to rival Los Alamitos in a key league match on Oct. 1. The Griffins are three-time defending outright league champions.

For now, a feisty win over Fountain Valley was a good start to league.

“They were definitely one of the teams we’ve been looking forward to competing against all summer,” Zehnder said. “I think that gave us a huge pump up, to come out really big today. I think everybody was just really on and everyone battled through all their matches.”