Johnson reaches individual CIF quarterfinals

Fallbrook High School freshman Hailey Johnson reached the quarterfinals in the CIF individual tennis championship tournament November 12-16.

“She beat some pretty good players on the way up,” Fallbrook coach Dave Ramirez said of Johnson. “It was a good experience for her.”

The tournament also saw the Fallbrook doubles team of senior Angela Maddock and freshman Jessica Willett win the first two rounds. Fallbrook had three doubles teams and two singles players in the CIF tournament.

Johnson’s loss came in the fourth round to fourth-seeded Remi Martin of Torrey Pines. “Before that she pretty much rolled the competition,” Ramirez said.

Johnson, who was seeded eighth, began the tournament with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Izzy Richardson of La Jolla Country Day. In the second round Johnson swept a pair of 6-0 sets from Courtney Gulihur of San Marcos, and in the round of 16 Johnson took a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Valhalla’s Malorie dela Cruz.

Martin ended Johnson’s participation in the tournament with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph November 15.

“She just did really well,” Ramirez said of Johnson. “She held her own.”

Maddock and Willett were seeded seventh in the doubles tournament. They began play with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over a Serra duo and then advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Francesca Capra and Kelsey Tibbitts of Valhalla.

“Overall they did pretty well,” Ramirez said of Maddock and Willett.

Willett and Maddock then faced the tenth-seeded team of Bryn Raschke and Diane Ji, a pair of freshmen from Torrey Pines.

Raschke and Ji took a 6-4 win in the first set. The second set was tied at six games apiece, triggering a tiebreaker to seven points.

Raschke and Ji reached their seventh point in the tiebreaking game when Willett and Maddock had only four.

Willett and Maddock led five games to three in the second set. “They made some mistakes and lost that set,” Ramirez said. “I think they could have won that match.”

The doubles team of sophomore Michaela Johnson and junior Leah Perri reached the second round of the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 win over the Christian High School duo of Amanda McDougal and Lindsay Mazza.

Johnson and Perri then faced sixth-seeded Stephanie Bishop and Jackie Wu of Rancho Bernardo High School, who took 6-4 and 6-1 sets from Johnson and Perri.

“It was awesome,” Ramirez said of Johnson and Perri reaching the second round. “Even in the loss they were very competitive.”

The Fallbrook doubles team of seniors Spencer Spagnuola and Ashley Dirrigo faced 11th-seeded Lauren Gray and Chelsea Krone of Westview High School in the first round. Gray and Krone advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph.

Fallbrook junior Roxanne Parker lost in the first round to Sabi Leon-Chao of Mt. Carmel High School. Leon-Chao won the first set by a 6-3 score, but Parker prevailed in the second set with a 6-4 victory to force the third and tiebreaking set. Leon-Chao garnered a 6-2 victory in the third set to advance to the second round.

“I’m just really proud of the girls. They did very well. They worked hard,” Ramirez said.