Larson takes third in league tennis tournament

The Valley League girls tennis tournament was contested Oct. 29-31 at San Pasqual High School, and Fallbrook players Makena Larson and Alexa Guadarrama both reached the semifinals.

The semifinal losses pitted Larson and Guadarrama against each other in the third-place match. Larson's win gave her third place and Guadarrama fourth place for the league tournament.

Dual match competition for Fallbrook concluded with a first-round loss in the CIF Division III playoffs Oct. 23 at University City. The Centurions advanced to the quarterfinals with a 15-3 victory.

"I wasn't disappointed at all," said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway. "I thought that making the playoffs at all was an achievement."

Fallbrook had the 14th seed in the Division III playoffs. University City was seeded third.

"They were a good team," said Lenaway of University City.

Last year University City lost in the first round of the CIF playoffs. This year the Centurions followed their victory over Fallbrook with a win over Brawley in the quarterfinals match before a 12-6 semifinals loss at second-seeded Santana ended University City's dual match season. The Centurions finished with a 21-6 record including a 12-0 figure in Western League competition.

The loss finalized Fallbrook's season record at 7-8, including a 4-4 mark in Valley League play which was worth third place in the five-team standings.

"I was very pleased with the play we played the whole year," Lenaway said. "We had good sets and good matches."

Dual matches involve three singles players and three doubles tandems from each team playing round-robin sets. Each school is guaranteed four singles players and four doubles teams in the league meet. Because Mission Vista does not have tennis, the Valley League tournament only involved five schools which were allowed up to five singles entries and five doubles entries if team rosters permitted. This year's Valley League tournament consisted of 21 singles players and 16 doubles tandems, including five singles players and four doubles teams from Fallbrook.

"They beat the people they were supposed to," Lenaway said.

Nearly all of the seeded players finished at their seeds.

"It just kind of went according to script," Lenaway said. "The lower-seeded kids didn't hang very well."

Fallbrook's seeded singles players were Larson, Guadarrama, and Nicole Dulin. Larson was the team's only senior, Guadarrama is a freshman, and Dulin is a junior. All three had first-round byes.

The two Fallbrook singles players who had first-round matches both lost. Both had played on the junior varsity roster during the dual match portion of the season. Fallbrook freshman Elizabeth Eastom was on the losing end of a 6-3, 6-4 match with Ramona sophomore Lauren Simonson. Emily Brown, a junior, lost a 6-1, 6-0 match against Escondido senior Kirsten Soto.

A coach can pair his top two singles players together as a doubles team in the league tournament if he believes such a duo would have a greater chance of qualifying for the CIF tournament. Ramona coach Troy Romero opted to do that with Chelsea Boss and Halli Romero, who were also the Bulldogs' only seniors. Valley Center coach Seth Leichtfuss paired junior Isabel Stehly, who was the Jaguar's top singles player this year, with junior Sophia Cox. San Pasqual coach Ron Peet paired senior Karen Nguyen, who had played singles for the Jaguars for most of the season, with junior Delaney Esselman, who won last year's league doubles championship along with 2017 senior Olivia Belair.

"When teams start stacking doubles it makes the doubles draw harder to get through," Lenaway said. "It just makes the doubles draw tougher."

That also gave Larson and Guadarrama a better chance of obtaining one of the league's five singles berths in the CIF tournament, but the one Fallbrook doubles team which had a first-round bye lost in the quarterfinals and the Warriors' other three duos were all eliminated in the first round.

"We didn't have a whole lot of varsity doubles players returning," Lenaway said.

The only 2018 Fallbrook doubles players who played doubles in the 2017 tournament, current junior Gabbi Bulli and sophomore Katelyn Jameson, played together last year. This year Bulli and sophomore Vronie Serrano were the only Fallbrook duo with a first-round bye. Jameson was paired with sophomore Kelsey Tanner, and the partners lost 6-3 and 6-1 sets in the first round to Stehly and Cox. The tandem of sophomore Lucy Bolduc and junior Caitlin Williams lost a 6-3, 6-1 match in the first round against Valley Center junior Jenna Brunton and sophomore Anabelle Dixon.

Fallbrook's other first-round loss was also to Valley Center partners, although senior Jaeden Flury and junior Kaley Seitz needed three sets to eliminate Fallbrook freshman Paulina Garcia and junior Carly Hawkins. Garcia and Hawkins won the 6-3 first set, Flury and Seitz took the second set by a 6-3 score, and a 6-1 victory in the third set gave Flury and Seitz the match and advanced them to the round of 16.

Bulli and Serrano, who were given the eighth seed, had a round of 16 match against San Pasqual sophomores Tessa Gilbert and Vienna Ralston. A 6-3, 6-4 triumph advanced Bulli and Serrano to the quarterfinals where they faced Nguyen and Esselman. A 6-0, 6-2 victory continued Nguyen and Esselman to the eventual 2018 league doubles championship and sent Bulli and Serrano to the consolation matches for fifth place and the league's final CIF doubles berth.

That fifth-place berth would eventually go to Ramona sophomores Charlotte Boss and Emily McCrory, who had been seeded fourth but lost in the quarterfinals to Brunton and Dixon. Boss and McCrory won 6-2 and 6-1 sets against Bulli and Serrano before also winning the match for fifth place.

"They played hard," Lenaway said of his players. "They both did everything they could. They just weren't quite as good as the other team."

Singles round of 16 play included Larson defeating Valley Center's Sophia Banner in 6-0 and 6-1 sets, Guadarrama prevailing in a 6-0, 6-3 match with San Pasqual junior Filippa Fenger, and Dulin advancing with a 6-0, 6-4 triumph at the expense of Ramona sophomore Chloe Breed. Dulin then had a quarterfinal match against San Pasqual junior Sophie Belair, who did not lose a game until her semifinal against Larson and did not lose a match until facing San Pasqual junior Acacia Denton in the championship round. Belair's 6-0, 6-0 victory sent Dulin to the consolation brackets.

Larson advanced to the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Savannah Parke, who became Dulin's first consolation opponent. Dulin won 6-1 and 6-2 sets to meet Ramona sophomore Kiera Duffy in the showdown for fifth place. Duffy was relegated to the consolation portion with a 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinals loss to Guadarrama.

Dulin began the match with a 6-4 victory. Duffy forced a third set with a 7-5 triumph and then took the final CIF berth by prevailing in the 6-4 third set.

"She lost a really tough three-setter," said Lenaway of the Oct. 31 match that began at about 2 p.m. and ended shortly before 5 p.m.

Dulin was thus deprived of a CIF tournament berth but still obtained sixth place in the league tournament.

"She had a great tournament," Lenaway said. "It was a testament to her."

The semifinal results created a final between two San Pasqual players and a third-place match with two Fallbrook players. Belair reached the final with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against Larson. Denton advanced by defeating Guadarrama in a 6-0, 6-1 match.

"I had to play my own teammate," Larson said. "It was a fun match."

The first set between Larson and Guadarrama was tied at six games apiece, forcing a tiebreaking game which was won by Larson. A 6-1 second set provided Larson with third-place status and gave Guadarrama fourth place.

"The match they played against each other for third was a really competitive match," Lenaway said.