Girls’ Tennis: Barons stay tied for first

Fountain Valley High girls’ tennis coach Harshul Patel remembers well the only time his Barons beat Newport Harbor in a Sunset League match.

It was two years ago, and Fountain Valley won by a single game after the teams played to a 9-9 tie.

Well, that is no longer the only win. The Barons earned a convincing 12-6 victory over Newport Harbor on Tuesday at their home courts.

“It’s the first time we’ve beat Newport like that,” Patel said after his team improved to 7-5, 4-0 in league, staying tied with Los Alamitos for first place.

Junior Hanh Pham and senior Katie Ho swept in singles for Fountain Valley, which plays host to Los Al in a showdown match Thursday to complete the first half of league play. Patel, in his sixth year in charge of the program, said the Barons are trying to win their first league title since 1991.

Before worrying about the Griffins, though, Patel knew his team had to beat the defending Sunset League champion Sailors (6-7, 2-2). That’s rarely an easy proposition.

“Going in, we knew that Newport is always, always tough,” Patel said. “[Newport Harbor Coach] Kristen [Case] does an unbelievable job with the team. Even though they are struggling in the singles, credit goes to her, what she does with that team. We never take it easy ever, every time we play Newport. We are going against a big mountain that we are always trying to climb, you know?”

Fountain Valley won each go-round by the same 4-2 score. Ho helped the Barons deliver that score after the first round, as she came back from a 4-1 deficit to top Newport’s Elise Rimland, 6-4.

The set was intense, with very long rallies. Ho also called for a line judge early in the set.

“I pushed myself, and I really wanted to win,” Ho said. “Ever since I’ve played against Newport, I haven’t really won a lot of [sets] against them. I knew I could beat her, I think I was just so out of it. I couldn’t get into the game until the very end.”

Fountain Valley sophomore Sharon Chen won once in singles. The doubles teams of Newport Harbor transfer Kayla Korhonen and Jane Nguyen, as well as Clarissa Htay and Vikki Nguyen, both won twice for Fountain Valley. Aozora Ito and Briana Lau won one doubles set.

The Barons won most of the close sets. Five sets finished with scores of 6-4, and Fountain Valley won four of them.

To Case, though, that was a good sign. The Sailors now have competitive losses against both Los Al and Fountain Valley in league, but play both the Griffins (Oct. 13) and the Barons (Oct. 20) at home during the second time through league.

Seniors Taryn Anderson and Eva Newsom swept, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 1 doubles for the Sailors. The No. 3 doubles team of Lauren Lipkowski and Amra Barton won once for the Sailors, as did singles players Rimland and Hannah Blower.

“I definitely think that we’re progressing in the right direction, and I really liked that this match was as competitive as it was,” Case said. “To be there in the first round of league is where we want to be. We can go back to work in practice and keep working on it. That way, next time we play them at home, we can learn from today and make it even more competitive and hopefully turn it our way ... If we prepare ourselves the right way, I genuinely believe that we have the ability to beat every team in our league.”

Fountain Valley hopes it has what it takes to beat Los Alamitos on Thursday. Ho said she expects her team to be ready.

“I believe that if we try hard enough and we’re confident, we just push through all the matches, I believe that we can win,” she said. “We’ve just got to believe in ourselves and keep going at it.”