Guadarrama, Dulin, Bulli-Eastom qualify for CIF tournament

Two Fallbrook High School singles players and one Fallbrook doubles team qualified for the CIF girls individual tennis tournament which if weather permits will be played Nov. 11-15 on the Morley Field courts in San Diego.

The Valley League tournament took place Oct. 21-24 at San Pasqual High School. All singles and doubles quarterfinals winners qualified for the tournament and the quarterfinals losers played two backdraw rounds to determine the fifth-place singles player and doubles team which would advance to the CIF tournament.

"They did okay," Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway said of his team.

"We had a few things that went a little bit unexpected," Lenaway said. "Nothing major, though."

During dual matches each of the school's three singles players has a set against each of the other school's three singles players and each of the three doubles tandems plays each opposing doubles team. The league tournament allows each school four singles players and four doubles pairs, and players can be brought up from the junior varsity squad.

Since Mission Vista does not have tennis the Valley League has only five teams and schools with enough players were allowed an additional singles player and an additional doubles team. Fallbrook had five singles players and four doubles teams in the league tournament.

The top eight singles seeds had first-round byes. Three of those seeds are Fallbrook players: sophomore Alexa Guadarrama was given the second seed, freshman Nina Del-Zio was seeded fifth and senior Nicole Dulin had the sixth seed.

Ryan Geffeney is a Fallbrook High School freshman who made her league tournament debut in the first round. She lost a 6-0, 6-1 match to Ramona junior Amanda Barrett.

Current sophomore Carly Hawkins played doubles in last year's league tournament and lost in the first round, but this year she opened singles play with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Escondido junior Kaylyn Ly. That pitted Hawkins against eighth-seeded Rania Price of Valley Center, who won two 6-1 sets in that second-round match.

Del-Zio began play in the second round with a 6-3, 6-0 triumph over San Pasqual freshman Ella Nosti. She then faced Ramona junior Kiera Duffy, who was the fourth seed. Del-Zio won the 6-2 first set, but Duffy responded with 6-1 and 6-2 victories to advance to the semifinals and send Del-Zio to the backdraw.

Barrett's win over Geffeney gave her a round of 16 match against Dulin, who prevailed in 6-2 and 6-4 sets. Dulin then faced Valley Center senior Isabel Stehly, who was the third seed, in the quarterfinals. Stehly's 6-0, 6-0 victory sent Dulin to the backdraw.

Stehly would also defeat Guadarrama, but not until the semifinals. Guadarrama's first match was a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Ramona junior Lauren Simonson. Guadarrama then faced Ramona senior Natalie Tucker and won that 6-0, 6-0 quarterfinals match.

Guadarrama's second seed and Stehly's third seed were based on head-to-head competition during a league match. "Alexa was seeded higher, but they only played one set," Lenaway said.

Stehly won 6-4 and 6-1 sets against Guadarrama. "Alexa played pretty well," Lenaway said.

San Pasqual senior Acacia Denton had not lost a game in the league tournament prior to her 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stehly in the championship match. Denton advanced to the final with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Duffy, so Guadarrama and Duffy faced each other in the third-place match.

Guadarrama defeated Duffy in 6-2 and 6-2 sets to take third place in the league tournament. "Kiera's a good little player, but Alexa's got more weapons in her game than Kiera does," Lenaway said.

Last year Duffy and Dulin played each other in the fifth-place match for the final CIF singles berth. A full third set was played after Dulin's 6-4 win was followed by Duffy's 7-5 triumph, and Duffy captured the CIF berth with a 6-4 victory in the final set. During this year's league dual matches Dulin defeated Duffy in the first round Sept. 12 in Ramona while Duffy won her Oct. 1 match against Dulin on the Fallbrook Tennis Club courts.

In the first round of the backdraw Del-Zio faced Price and Dulin played Tucker. Del-Zio defeated Price in the 6-3 first set, but Price won the second set six games to three. In the backdraw if the first two sets were split a tie breaking game to 10 points rather than a full third set decided the match. Price won that third game by a 10-8 score.

"I believe a lot of it was really precipitated by the long three-set match she had with Kiera," Lenaway said of Del-Zio's loss to Price.

Price was Denton's quarterfinals victim. The 6-0, 6-0 match gave Price a longer break than Del-Zio had. "Nina came out that much more tired," Lenaway said.

Dulin won a pair of 6-1 sets against Tucker. "She's played her before and she's always beaten her," Lenaway said.

A 6-3 set in Dulin's favor began the fifth-place match with Price. The second set was tied at six games apiece, triggering a tiebreaking game to seven points with the requirement that a player must win by at least two points. Price forced a tie breaking third-set game with a 13-11 victory in the tiebreaker to end the second set.

The winner-take-all tie breaking game in lieu of a full third set was to be to 10 points, but the game was tied at 9-9 before Dulin scored the final two points for an 11-9 victory and fifth place.

"They're just both super consistent. They just keep the ball going back and forth," Lenaway said. "Neither one of those girls are power hitters. They're just consistent."

Dulin's win also earned her a court at Morley Field. "I'm happy for her. She hasn't gotten to go there yet," Lenaway said.

The league doubles tournament had only 20 tandems so four unseeded duos as well as the eight seeds received first-round byes. Fallbrook had two seeded doubles teams: senior Gabby Bulli and sophomore Elizabeth Eastom had the seventh seed while junior Vronnie Serrano and freshman Reid Biland were seeded eighth. The unseeded team of junior Luci Bolduc and freshman Sam Hanlon also had a first-round bye.

Fallbrook's doubles team which played in the first round consisted of freshmen Cynthia Flor and Tracy Lopez. "They're absolutely beginning players," Lenaway said.

Ramona sophomores Emma Creason and Avalon Shelton eliminated Flor and Lopez in a 6-0, 6-0 match, but Flor and Lopez now have league tournament competition which could benefit them during their next three years. "It was a good experience for them to go out and play," Lenaway said.

The third-seeded Ramona team consisting of seniors Sidney Din and Cambria Jeffers faced Bolduc and Hanlon in the round of 16 and won a pair of 6-0 sets. "They got a tough draw," Lenaway said of his players. "They just got beaten by a team that's better than they were."

Serrano and Biland defeated the Escondido duo of Gabriela Gonzalez and Kendall Hoang in the 6-4 first set, but Gonzalez and Hoang won the 6-3 second set. Serrano and Biland won the 10-7 game which constituted the third set.

"They played a team that's pretty good," Lenaway said. "In the third set, the game was really close and they pulled it out again, which was really good to see."

That advanced the Fallbrook partners to the quarterfinals – contingent upon Biland being healthy enough to play. "When she came off of that match she was in pretty bad shape," Lenaway said.

Flu-like symptoms including a headache and a sore throat kept Biland from playing the following day and forced the Fallbrook partners to default in the quarterfinal match against the top-seeded Ramona team of juniors Charlotte Boss and Emily McCrory. Biland was also unable to play in the first round of the backdraw, so Serrano and Biland defaulted to Valley Center seniors Jenna Stehly and Sophia Cox.

Bulli and Eastom first played Ramona juniors Chloe Breed and Jamie Sothman, who prevailed in the 7-5 first set. Bulli and Eastom won the 6-3 second set and then the 10-7 tiebreaking game.

"It was just a really close match. They pulled it out at the end," Lenaway said.

Belair and senior Delaney Esselman were seeded second but won the league doubles championship. Their path to the finals included a 6-0, 6-0 quarterfinals victory over Bulli and Eastom.

Din and Jeffers had to defeat their own teammates to advance to the semifinals, so Bulli and Eastom began the backdraw with a match against Creason and Shelton. Bulli and Eastom won 6-1 and 6-4 sets to eliminate the Ramona sophomores.

Fifth place and the final CIF tournament berth was thus decided by the match in which Bulli and Eastom played Jenna Stehly and Cox. Bulli and Eastom followed their 6-4 triumph in the first set with a 6-3 win in the second set to capture the match.

"They did a really good job going through the backdraw," Lenaway said.

When the season began Bulli played doubles with Serrano and Bolduc was Eastom's doubles partner. "My doubles teams have been switched up quite a bit," Lenaway said.

Bulli and Eastom were paired together in the middle of the season. "I think it took them a little while to get used to each other," Lenaway said. "I think every match they played they got better."

Lenaway credits the ability of the two to work with each other for the improvement. "I think Gabby showed good leadership," he said. "I think they communicated well."

Last year Guadarrama qualified for the singles portion of the CIF tournament. She finished fourth in the league tournament after losing the third-place match to Makena Larson, who was a Fallbrook senior last year. Larson and Guadarrama were the only Warriors who qualified for the 2018 CIF tournament.

This year's CIF tournament will thus be the first not only for Eastom but also for the only two seniors on the Fallbrook roster, so Dulin and Bulli will close out their high school careers at Morley Field. "Both of them qualified to go," Lenaway said.