Cate Dominates 2026 SB Tennis Invitational

The Cate Rams Girls’ Varsity Team has taken the 5th Edition of the Santa Barbara Tennis Invitational, marking the first time a local team has won the event.

Cate came through three dual matches in 24hrs with 6-0, 5-1, and 6-0 wins, playing two rounds against San Diego Section opponents (San Marcos/SD and Rancho Bernardo), before taking down Bay Area power-house, Monta Vista, in the tournament finale.

How it Happened:

Cate d. San Marcos/San Diego 6-0

Cate swept through the first round of competition against San Marcos High School, visiting from San Diego County.

The Rams took a 4-0 lead through the first round-of-play, collecting straight set wins from Lisa Hasebe and Claire Tang at #2 and #3 singles, with the two seniors dropping just 3 games total between them. At doubles #2 and #3, Cate collected a pair of 6-1, 6-4 matches from juniors Elly Edwards/Chelsea Newlove and seniors Gwendi Rogers/Edie Abbott.

In the second round-of-play, Elizabeth Jayich and Ivy Huang combined for a 6-1, 6-1 win at line #1 doubles, while junior Jade Wang was made to work considerably more for her win at line #1 singles.

Wang dropped the first set 2-6 again San Marcos’s senior #1 player Yuna Martin (UTR 5.3), but re-found her best for a 7-5 second set and a dominant 10-1 match tie-break.

Cate d. Rancho Bernardo 5-1

Cate again leapt out to the early lead, this time spurred by quick wins from Ivy Huang (6-0,6-3) and Margo Nicholas (6-3, 6-0) at #2 and #3 singles, respectively.

In doubles, senior/freshman combo Claire Tang/Kiki Chang took a 6-4, 6-1 victory at #3. The #2 doubles match was more even, with Edwards and Newlove splitting sets (6-3, 2-6) before dropping a tight 8-10 match tie-break.

The line #1 matches were all-Cate, all the time, with Elizabeth Jayich holding down the top spot with a 6-0, 6-1 victory and Jade Wang combining with Lisa Hasebe for a 6-1, 6-3 win.

Cate d. Monta Vista 6-0

Cate continued to dominate the SB Invitational, taking 3 of the opening sets in the first round-of-play. Jade Wang was the first of the courts, registering a 6-2, 6-0 win at line #3 singles.

The next three took a bit more doing, with Ivy Huang dropping the opening line #2 singles set 3-6, and doubles #2-3 pairings Elly Edwards/Chelsea Newlove and Claire Tang/Margo Nicholas battling to 6-4 first set leads. The second sets in doubles were more lopsided, with Cate taking 6-2 and 6-0 sets, respectively.

With the 3-0 lead, Ivy Huang fought back, taking the last 5 games of the second set (6-2) to draw even with senior Lisa Yoshida of Monta Vista. Huang lead from start to finish in the match tie-break, eventually closing her match and clinching the tournament for Cate with a 10-6 score.

Senior captain Lisa Hasebe and freshman Kiki Chang took the court in the final match of the day, facing the steep challenge of Monta Vista #1 doubles team Thea Krishnaswamy/Anna Zhang. Going down 0-3 early, the pair battled back to an 8-6 win, cementing the championship without a loss in the finals.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

When we talked about this tournament this week, I reminded our girls of a pattern of progress that had developed in our first few years of participation in the SB Invitational; 5th place in 2024, 3rd place in 2025, and aspirationally, a continuation of that descending pattern in 2026.

What seems nice in theory doesn’t necessarily come to pass in reality, but this Cate girls’ tennis team outperformed expectations throughout the tournament. Despite the convincing final scores, there were numerous closely contested matchups in each round.

In the match against San Marcos/SD, Jade came back from a pretty deep hole at line #1 singles, and Ivy did the same in the final match against Monta Vista. The support from the sidelines and across courts was exceptional throughout, and the team took a big step forward in confidence.

We really appreciate the willingness of these teams to come out and compete against us in our own backyard, because this type of challenge is what reveals our full potential. I think we learned this weekend that we are a championship caliber team, so this was the perfect first dress rehearsal for CIF Playoffs later this fall.

What’s Next for Cate Girls’ Tennis

Cate, now 8-0, returns to action in a league match against Thacher in Ojai on Tuesday, September 29th at 3:30pm. Cate will also host Arroyo Grande next week, with the Central Section team making the drive out on Saturday, October 3rd at 10am.

Rams Shut Out Sharks with 18-0 Victory

Cate spared not a single set for visiting Malibu High School, taking all 18 sets-of-play in the Tri-Valley League match held today on Cate Mesa. Cate moves to 5-0 (2-0 in league play) and looks poised to continue the streak at this weekend’s Santa Barbara Invitational Tournament.

How it Happened:

Cate’s singles lineup featured usual #2 doubles partners Elly Edwards and Chelsea Newlove, who each collected two set wins on the day. Edwards opened the match with a tight 6-4 win over Malibu #1 Ana Mitrovic (4.6UTR) and is now 8-0 overall this season, with 4 wins in singles and 4 in doubles.

Senior Evita Ferrone and sophomore Margo Nicholas added a pair of 6-2 wins against the Malibu #2, while freshman Elizabeth Jayich and junior Jade Wang each collected 6-0 wins against Mitrovic.

In doubles, it continues to be all Cate, all the time. After the perfect 54-0 doubles game-score across 9 sets versus Villanova last week, the Rams followed up the performance with a 54-6 showing today.

Last year’s TVL Doubles Champions and CIF Round-0f-32 pairing, Ivy Huang/Lisa Hasebe, made their season debut together at line #1. The duo scored a 6-0 win before being replaced by juniors Josie Goldhirsh and Riya Mitera. Cate received 3-set sweeps from Claire Tang/Kiki Chang at #2 and Gwendi Rogers/Edie Abbott at #3 doubles.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

I really enjoyed seeing the girls take on different roles in the lineup today. I think that, although there’s a lot to be said for specialization, giving some doubles players the room to roam the court and think out a singles match provides some insights that they can then take back into their usual roles.

Elly stepped up her game big-time today to take what is probably her best singles win to-date and Chelsea also showed us her versatility when not confined to the tighter spaces and targets of the doubles game.

We also got to see our new sophomore Margot compete for the first time today, after finally waiting out the transfer sit-out period, and she did not disappoint!

We’re firing on all cylinders already as we head into one of our big season objectives this weekend.

What’s Next For Cate Girls’ Tennis?

Cate opens SB Invitational play on Friday afternoon at 3pm, playing at home against San Marcos High School from San Diego County. The winner will play the winner of San Marcos High School from Santa Barbara and Rancho Bernardo High School from San Diego County at 9am on Saturday morning in the Semifinal Round. The Finals will be held at Noon on Saturday.

Doubles Domination Spurs 17-1 Cate Victory

Cate girls’ tennis nearly pulled off the complete sweep today, taking a 17-1 victory over visiting Villanova Prep. The Rams move to 4-0 on the season with the win in their league-season opener.

How it Happened:

Cate’s doubles prowess was on full display today, recording a perfect 6-0 sweep of all 9 sets on that side of the scoresheet. Senior Captain Gwendi Rogers and her junior partner Josie Goldhirsh paired for 3 wins, with the team of Chelsea Newlove/Kiki Chang matching the effort with another 3 sets.

Senior doubles anchor Lisa Hasebe partnered with fellow senior Claire Tang in the first round, before handing the baton to another senior, Edie Abbott, for the final two rounds.

In singles, freshman Elizabeth Jayich continues her unbeaten streak, taking a 6-0 win over defending TVL Singles Champion Chloe Kalison. Junior Jade Wang followed suit in the second round, recording a 6-1 victory over the Villanova senior. Kalison registered a 6-1 win over Cate substitute Riya Mitera in the third round.

Elsewhere in singles, Ivy Huang and Elly Edwards went 2-0 on the day and Evita Ferrone notched a 6-0 win over the Villanova #3 singles player in the final round, while coming in off the bench.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

It’s not often you see an entire doubles card with no games surrendered, so I’m obviously very proud of the way our doubles unit took care of business. Ivy also had a really nice comeback after suffering an injury in her second match; she was very gutsy fighting back from 2-5 down to take the final 5 games of that set. Both the hunger to take every game and the grittiness to battle back that I saw from the team today will serve us well come playoff-time!

What’s Next for Cate Tennis?

Cate will face TVL newcomer, Malibu High School, on Tuesday next at Cate. Following the Malibu match, The Rams turn their attention toward the SB Invitational on Friday and Saturday of next week.

Cate Remains Undefeated with 15-3 Win over San Marcos

Cate School girls’ tennis heads into the annual “outings week” break with a convincing 15-3 victory over visiting San Marcos High School. The girls will now trade their racquets in for backpacking gear and move away from the courts and into the Sierra, taking with them a 3-0 season record and three weeks of solid training.

How it Happened:

Cate singles faced a strong challenge today from 5.6 UTR-rated junior Tate Jaeger of SM, who came out firing against freshman Elizabeth Jayich. The two traded the first four games of the match, 3 of them going to the “deuce + 1,” before Jayich broke away to claim a 6-3 victory.

In the second round, junior Jade Wang of Cate had a similarly close battle, finding herself locked in a close one until 3-4. At that point, there was a clear swing in momentum as Wang changed tactics, mixing aggressive baseline striking with a few well-timed drop shots; the final 3 games went quickly in Cate’s favor.

With Jayich and Wang eventually sweeping their three sets each, senior Claire Tang (who filled in for usual singles star Ivy Huang) collected a set win and fought gamely to two competitive losses against the San Marcos #1 and #2 singles players.

In doubles play, senior/freshman combo Lisa Hasebe/Kiki Wang remain undefeated as a pair, taking their three sets 6-0, 6-1, 6-0. Seniors Gwendi Rogers and Evita Ferrone put forth a similar line, going 3-0 on the day as well (6-1, 6-0, 6-2). Edie Abbott and Jose Goldhirsh filled out the results with 2 solid wins and a tight 4-6 loss to the SM #1 team.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

I want to highlight all three of our singles players today. Tate Jaeger came out firing today and so I was impressed by the way both Elizabeth and Jade kept their composure throughout those very competitive line one matches. Just as encouraging for me as a coach, Claire really rose to the occasion playing Jaeger in the third round; she was her usual consistent self, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her move so well. Although she didn’t get the win, I loved the effort and see the progress in her game.

I’m also happy with the way we managed some sickness that’s been moving through Cate over the last week. We had a key singles player and a key doubles team missing from the lineup, but didn’t miss a beat. When players who don’t normally start heard them names called, they we’re ready to roll. As we’ve seen many times in the past, having the depth to put together a winning lineup when players are missing is key to making a deep playoff run in November; that’s our intention and so far we’ve shown we have what it takes.

What’s Next for Cate Girls’ Tennis?

Yosemite, Kern, maybe a dip in an alpine lake or a bear sighting during the outings week break. Then, it’s back to business with the Tri-Valley League season opener against Villanova Prep on September 17th.

Cate defeats Channel League Champions 17-1 in All-Santa Barbara Match-Up

Cate moves to 2-0 on the season with a dominant performance over visiting Dos Pueblos High School. With the win over the defending Channel League champion Chargers, Cate takes poll position for top team in Santa Barbara County.

How It Happened:

Cate swept doubles play, with senior Lisa Hasebe partnering with freshman Kiki Chang for a 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 sweep. Seniors Edie Abbott and Gwendi Rogers also swept, including a come-from-behind win in the second round, where they trailed 2-5 against the Charger #2 squad. Chelsea Newlove paired with Elly Edwards for 2 wins before a third victory partnered with Claire Tang.

In singles, Ivy Huang again led Cate with a 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 line on the day, while freshman Elizabeth Jayich made her season debut with a pair of 6-0 wins against the Chargers top 2 players. Junior Jade Wang had a particularly strong day, playing the #3 line for Cate. She earned three wins while dropping just 2 games on the day.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

It’s great to get a first look at what the full roster can do. Our singles lineup is the strongest it has ever been, which has already led to some great practices for our singles players leading into this match. We’ve also got a very experienced mix of players across our doubles lineup, including a few seniors who have been around since our CIF title run in 2023.

Dos Pueblos has been our toughest regular season opponent in each of the last 3 seasons, so getting this convincing result is a good early-season indication of the level we’re playing at right now. That said, I think we’ve got a lot of room to grow in the coming months; very exciting!

What’s Next for Cate Girls’ Tennis?

Cate will host a 3:30pm match against San Marcos High School on Thursday before heading off to various hiking/backpacking adventures for outings week.

Cate Girls Open Season with Big WIN!

Cate Girls’ Tennis has come out the gates hot again this season, with a 12-6 win over visiting Stockdale High School from Bakersfield. Stockdale is the defending CIF Central Section D1 championship team and held a 20-match win-streak dating back to September 2025 before the match.

How it happened:

Cate jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first round, taking 2 convincing wins in singles and battling through 3 very close sets to pick up the doubles sweep.

Cate was led in singles by junior Ivy Huang, who turned in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 performance, including a win over 6.3 UTR-rated #1 singles player Jordan Li. Jade Wang, also a junior, went 2-1 on the day, including a convincing 6-1 victory over 5.3 UTR-rated Akshaya Behara.

In doubles, senior Lisa Hasebe went 3-0, partnering with Elly Edwards in rounds 1 and 2, before pairing with freshman Kiki Chang in the final round. Seniors Claire Tang and Edie Edwards went 2-0 on the day, including a 7-4 tie-break set over the Stockdale #2 teams. The pair fought off 3 set points at 5-6 down to force the deciding breaker and never trailed again. Junior/senior combo Chelsea Newlove and Gwendi Rogers finished 2-1.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

After missing our rendezvous with West Ranch last week due to heat restrictions, we are so happy to have been able to get this match in against Stockdale. All week, we were pushing up against the CIF limits with this heat wave, and we even had to cancel practice yesterday, but thankfully the clouds came out.

I’m so proud of the way my girls rose to the challenge of playing a team of this caliber so early in our season. We haven’t had much time to sort out our lineup yet, but the girls came ready for battle today and we definitely put Stockdale on the back foot earlier. I thought my team showed a lot of poise and confidence throughout the day to not only come out swinging, but maintain a lead against a Stockdale team that definitely improved throughout.

What’s Next for Cate Girls’ Tennis?

Cate returns to action next week with a pair of Santa Barbara matchups that will provide an early indicator of who the top team in SB County will be this year. Cate will be visited by Dos Pueblos on Tuesday, September 1st, followed by another home match against San Marcos on Thursday, September 3rd. Cate has not lost to either team in the last 3 seasons.

Cate Spring Junior WTN Recap

More than 40 high school (and future high school) players competed in the Cate Spring Junior WTN Tournament over the weekend, with some local names featuring in each of the three finals matches.

In Girls’ Singles, Cate School sophomore Elly Edwards took the title over finalist Adhya Reddy-Hoelle with an emphatic 6-0 victory. The win in the single-elimination playoff avenged her tie-break loss to Reddy-Hoelle in the Group Stage of the girls draw, held earlier in the day. 

Photos of Elly Edwards taken by Ben Elkin

Cate has now claimed the girls’ singles title in both editions of the 2026 series, with Edwards’ fellow sophomore Cate teammate, Jade Wang, taking the winter title.

Boys’ Doubles was nearly an all-Cate affair in the winter event, with 3-of-4 players in the final able to walk across campus from their dorm rooms for the tournament. This time around, it was 2 teams from San Marcos High School and 2 from Viewpoint in Calabasas who battled for the final 4 positions in the doubles compass draw.

In the end, it was Levi Reece and Jacob Cantrell from SMHS who took the title over Viewpoint’s Vance Resnick and Gavin Holmes. The San Marcos team battled back from 0-3 and 2-5 down in a determined fashion to claim the title, winning the final 5 games for an exciting 7-5 finish. 

Meanwhile, on the next court over, their high school teammates Paolo Borgioli and Eliot Gray nabbed third place from Jonah Windisch and Casey Bernstein of Viewpoint. Cate’s top doubles performance came from sophomore/freshman duo Alex Danely/Nolan Hsing, who battled back from a first round loss to take 5th place.

Singles play for the 32-player boys’ draw began on Saturday with players competing in 8 grouping of 4 players, round robin-style. The group stage yielded 16 players for the Sunday afternoon single-elimination playoff. 

Amongst those who advanced were 3 middle school entrants who all kept the high school boys on their toes throughout the tournament. In the Round-of-16, Ryder Eberz battled to 4-6 against the top seed, Harry Pedersen went 5-7 against the #10 seed, and Tyler Spaulding also managed to play some great points against the eventual champion.

Elsewhere in the draw, Oliver Tande took a pair of wins and defeated the #3-seeded Gavin Holmes en-route to a semifinal showing. The Laguna Blanca junior went one better than his performance in the winter edition, where he also defeated a #3-seeded player to reach the quarterfinal round, before falling to eventual champion Kakeru Hirofuji (Cate).

The other semifinalist was Jonah Windisch, who matched his semifinals performance in morning doubles competition. Windisch took a 6-4 victory over Cate junior James He and another 6-4 win over Nicholas Christman, a junior at Atascadero High School.

Photos of Nicholas Christman and Lucas Forry taken by Griffin Gruber

With top-seeded junior Lucas Forry of Santa Barbara High School and #2-seed Vance Resnick of Viewpoint reaching his second final of the day, the battle for the title was sure to be a thriller. 

The set featured very close competition, with neither player able to pull out a significant lead. At 4-4, Forry broke Resnick, earning a chance to serve the match out, but Resnick fought off a set point to continue the back-and-forth affair. Eventually, the two found themselves locked in a tie-breaker to decide the title. Even then, the two lefties stayed close in the early-going, trading blows both from the baseline and at net. Finally, Resnick managed to close out the match 7-4 by winning the final 3 points to take the championship and finish the weekend 7-0 in singles play.

As a tournament director, I was honored to have such an outstanding group of boys and girls tennis players competing across the weekend. The competition was fierce, exciting, and enthusiastic and we had great representation from a variety of coastal California players from Atascadero to Malibu. 

I also want to take the opportunity to again recognize our 5 Sportsmanship Award winners, who helped save the day Sunday morning when we had a wet court delay; Vance Resnick, Gavin Holmes, Jonah Windisch, Ryder Eberz, and Harry Pedersen all earned $25 Tenniswarehouse gift cards when they showed up early and volunteered to help push puddles and get the courts dry so the morning matches could get on court. 

While we had some great examples of sportsmanship during the matches, I think it’s important this time to recognize these guys for their proactiveness in helping. A core element of sportsmanship is doing the right thing or making the extra effort to be kind, even when it might not seem like anyone is watching. The mentality of being a good sport should extend beyond the match, to the school or club, where inevitably it can also then become a part of who we are outside the tennis world, too. Thanks guys!

The spring edition of the Cate WTN Tournament Series is round two of a three-part series, which will conclude with a fall edition on October 10-11. I look forward to seeing many familiar faces and hopefully some new additions to the mix in the fall.

Trevor Thorpe – Tournament Director

Inaugural Cate Winter Junior WTN Tournament Recap

Over the weekend, 52 players competed in the “first-of-its-kind” Cate Winter Junior WTN Tournament at the Cate School in Carpinteria.

The tournament is designed to prepare high schoolers (and aspiring high school players) for the CIF-Southern Section scoring and match style. The format also allows players to improve the reliability of their USTA/ITF “WTN Rating,” the newly emerging standard for comparing player levels across all divisions of tennis.

A total of 111 matches were played, between boys and girls singles and doubles, utilizing the CIF-Southern Section “single-set, deuce+1 scoring format.”

In a nod to World Cup “Futbol” tournament organization, Day 1 featured round-robin groupings of four players, with the top players advancing to a singles single-elimination draw in the afternoon of Day 2. Between the singles action, 8-teams of boys and girls competed in doubles compass draws.

When the dust settled, Cate players had done their school proud, taking victory in all four events, despite facing players from as far north as Atascadero, as far south as Los Angeles, and as far east as Lithuania!

In girls’ singles, sophomore standout Jade Wang was dominant, dropping just 4 games in 5 matches, including a 6-3 finals win over junior Chloe Kalison 6-3 of Villanova High School. The victory follows her win at the Santa Barbara Winter Level 6 USTA Tournament in the G16 division just 5 weeks ago. Sophomore Cate student Elly Edwards also reached the semifinal round, falling 4-6 to Kalison.

Boys’ singles featured a number of exciting matchups on both days, with 3 of the top 4 seeds advancing to the semifinal round. Laguna Blanca junior Oliver Tande pulled off the upset of the tournament over #3 seed Gavin White of Thacher School in the Round of 16, while #5-seeded Lucas Forry of Santa Barbara High School eventually reached the semifinal round with a 6-1 win over Alex Corbo of San Luis Obispo High School.

Cate sophomore Bruce Li proved too much for Forry on the bottom half of the draw, while Cate junior Kakeru Hirofuji took out #1 seed Grantas Pikunas, a highly rated Lithuanian exchange student playing for Dunn School this season.

In the all-Cate finale, Hirofuji’s relentless intensity overcame Li’s length and athleticism, with Hirofuji taking the 6-2 win in what was a reversal of fortunes from the boys’ doubles final earlier in the day.

After three rounds on Sunday morning, the two Cate singles players also found themselves on opposite ends in the finals, with Hirofuji and Forry partnering against Li and fellow Cate sophomore Kendrick Suen. The match-up was close from start to finish, with Li/Suen eventually defeating Hirofuji/Forry 7-5 in a tie-breaker to claim the boys’ doubles trophy.

The girls’ doubles was also a 7-5 tie-break victory, playing out on the next court over within minutes of the boys’ event. Singles players Wang and Edwards of Cate came through the semifinals with a 6-3 win over freshman Ella Osley of Laguna Blanca and 8th grader Keren Monroy. Meanwhile, #1-seeded Cate sophomore/junior combo Ivy Huang and Reyna Takahashi posted a 6-1 victory over their junior teammates Gwendi Rogers and Claire Tang.

In the all-Cate girls’ final, Huang and Takahashi were pushed to the limit, defending a match-point at 5-6, before recovering to win a closely contested tie-breaker.

Not to be left out, Cate’s Kendrick Suen and middle-schooler Hannah George received the tournament honors (and TennisWarehouse gift cards) for their excellent sportsmanship throughout the tournament. In addition to Suen’s doubles title performance, both players went 3-0 in their singles groupings on Day 1, proving that winning and sportsmanship can coexist!

Players and spectators also did an admirable job attempting to finish off all the food from the “surprise” pizza party at lunch-time on Day 2. Only 1 of 10 pies had to be sent off to the Cate School boys’ dorm rooms for immediate disposal.

Big thanks need to go to a number of people who made this event possible: Greg Tebbe at Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons, Wade Ransom at Cate School, Mark Polowczak and Cameron DeAragon on the tournament staff team, Fred Randall for taking photos of the doubles players in action, the Danely family for being the first to sign up when the entry list was empty and lonely, and my wife Maria who put up with me obsessing over making this tournament as good as I could make it.

Thanks also to the players for their efforts and parents for their kindness throughout the weekend. I enjoyed every minute of that tournament and hope you all did, too!

If you’d like to see more of the results for this tournament, visit the Cate Winter Junior WTN Tournament on the USTA website. For Fred’s downloadable photos from the doubles tournament, click here. If you’re already looking forward to the next one, save the dates (May 2-3, 2026) and sign up early for the Cate Spring Junior WTN Tournament.

Draws will be limited to 32 singles players and 8 doubles teams and both doubles draws ended up with alternates in the inaugural edition. Also, early sign-ups mean the tournament director has fewer headaches and more time to plan a fun event!

Trevor Thorpe – Tournament Director

Thorpe Tennis 2025 Year-in-Review

My 17th year living and working as a tennis coach in Santa Barbara is now done-and-dusted. It always shocks me how quickly the time passes and yet how much I manage to squeeze in…this year was no different!

The sporting year began on a personal note, as I got to partner with my doubles partner from college (20 years ago?!) to compete in the Wilson World Tennis Classic L2 35’s Doubles Tournament. We reached the finals, taking wins over a player who reached #1702 on the ATP tour, a former D1 starter (Boise State), and a former D2 starter (UT-Dallas).

Following that tournament, I reached an all-time high USTA national ranking of #20 in my age-group, but highlight was getting to compete with my old buddy Aron in front of our wives and my childhood tennis coach Kurt, in the Palm Springs Area where I grew up!

There was little time for reflection though, as it was immediately back to Santa Barbara to finish up my Cate Winter Training Group. The 2025 edition featured 10 players and continues to grow as a resource for our boarders looking to increase their tennis opportunities during the off-season.

Next up, in was the start of my 16th season coaching at Laguna Blanca. This year, I stepped aside as head coach, ceding the role to my friend Mark Polowczak, who has been helping me with all of my programs over the last few years. As I gradually step back at Laguna, it’s really pleasing for me to see that the program is in good hands.

In 2025, the Owls managed to snag the final playoff spot in the Tri-Valley League, and went on to reach the CIF D5 Quarterfinals. This is the strongest playoff showing since we reached the CIF D4 Semifinals in 2022, and with a young team, it’s also a performance upon which to build in the coming years.

Throughout the summer months, a number of players from the Thorpe Tennis Community competed in USTA junior tournaments, with a particular stand-out being Alex Danely. In 2025, his UTR rating moved from below 4 to 5.3 as he won the Solvang Summer Classic and the Top Seed Tennis Academy Round-Robin, as well as finishing runner-up in the San Luis Obispo Summer Classic.

More recently, Alex partnered with Graham Clinger (another member of the Cate Winter Training Group) to finish runner-up in the Santa Barbara Winter Junior Championships. In that same tournament, another Cate player that I coach, Jade Wang, claimed the girls’ 16’s singles title!

The end of summer brought another personal tennis highlight for me. Most of you know that I compete with and co-captain the “Santa Barbarians” in the Santa Barbara Mens’ Interclub League. Since 2012, we’ve been on the hunt for our first doubles championship, and this year we finally got it!

Partnering with my co-captain Wes Barber’s son Curran Hall, we went 3-0 in the playoffs at line 2, including the title-clinching win against SBTC in the finals. In that match, we competed against a former D1 player and a former D3 nationally-ranked player, both of whom I’d lost matches against in the last year.

The match came down to a 10-pointer in the 3rd set, with the SBTC team going up 8-3 and 9-7 before we fought back to take the final FIVE points. In a prideful moment, I have to say that I hit back-to-back corner aces for the first time in my life and played like a banshee at the net during the tail-end of this tie-breaker. Sometimes, if you believe that you cannot be stopped (and you’ve put in the work), you can summon a moment of tennis invincibility. The body follows the mind, so take care what you think to yourself.

It was an absolute highlight of my tennis life to be able to come through for this Barbarian band of brothers that I love so much…even better to do it while partnered with the Barbarian NextGen, Curran, who carried himself so well throughout this season and was such a valuable member of the team. Also, I got to be taller than his dad (the first guy who invited me into the playing community when I came to Santa Barbara), if only for a moment!

Next up was season 17 coaching girls’ tennis at Cate. We had another exceptionally strong season, going 14-1 overall during the regular season, winning the Tri-Valley League, clinching a playoff berth for the 14th consecutive season (D2), and peaking at #46 of 373 schools in CIF Southern Section. Additionally, junior/sophomore combo Lisa Hasebe and Ivy Huang reached the final 64 doubles teams in individuals and the entire starting lineup went undefeated in TVL league play!

Off the courts, I got the chance to travel quite a bit (shocker, right?). Some highlights were:

Beach-hopping on Kauai and Oahu.

A number of visits to check up on the CasasThorpe Vacation Rentals in Merida and play some padel with local friends like Xavier.

3 visits to Austin, including attending both “SXSW” and “Austin City Limits” festivals.

Backpacking the 40-mile Trans-Catalina Trail in 3 days.

Finally getting to the end of the famous “Angels Landing” hike in Zion National Park.

Completing the “Rim-to-Rim” in 24 hours in Grand Canyon National Park

Completing a “new-to-us” backpacking route with Maria’s daughter Dali in Yosemite National Park

Making our triumphant return to European summer (our long-delayed-by-immigration-paperwork honeymoon), this time spending a week exploring the beaches of Crete and the bazaars of Istanbul.

And ending the year in our beloved Mexico, with visits to a number of areas in Jalisco, including Costalegre and Guadalajara with family for the holidays.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats on being a totally committed member of the Thorpe Tennis Community…and sorry I didn’t manage to shorten this post as much as I shortened my hair throughout the year. Regardless, it remains abundantly clear that this is more than just a tennis business…this is an extended family growing around and learning from this sport we all love. See you in 2026!

-TT

Cate Falls to Stacked Whitney Squad in 8-10 Battle

Cate Girls’ Tennis (15-2) sees their season come to an end today, dropping an 8-10 decision against visiting Whitney High School (17-3) in the CIF D3 Round of 16.

How it Happened:

Cate came agonizingly close to executed on a pre-match plan to collect a win via strength in doubles. Normal #1 singles player paired with CIF Individuals partner Lisa Hasebe to sweep the line 1 position (6-1, 6-0, 6-0). In the first round, Cate also received a convincing win from senior/sophomore combo Reyna Takahashi and Elly Edwards. New pairing Elsie Chamberlain and Edie Abbott held a 4-1 lead at the #3 position, before being overcome by a late surge from Whitney (4-6).

Meanwhile, over in singles, the goal for Cate was to take 3 wins against the Whitney #3 player and sophomore Jade Wang opened the account with a 6-0 victory.

In round 2, senior captain Claire Bianchi turned back the clock to her days as a singles player in 2023 to record a quick 6-1 victory and keep the team strategy on track.

Takahashi and Edwards then came within 2 games of defeating the Whitney #1 team, before falling victim to another late surge by the visiting squad (4-6). Chamberlain paired with new partner Gwendi Rogers against the #2 players from Whitney, falling behind 0-5 in a hurry, only to recover to 5-5 in a thrilling see-saw match. The Whitney seniors managed to hold their nerve and close out the set 7-5, leaving Cate a tough task in the final round of play.

Round 3 began with Cate trailing 5-7, but the game-count still very close if a 9-9 set-tie could be attained. With the Whitney #1 and #2 players D1 college-bound, it fell to junior Claire Tang to pick up a win against the #3 to keep the team in the hunt.

Tang dutifully turned in a 6-2 victory, winning the last 5 games played and securing a good margin of victory should the 9-9 tie scenario play out.

With Huang and Hasebe adding a 6-1 victory, that left the match in the hands of the finally two doubles matches on court. Chamberlain and Rogers played well, but struggled to gain traction against the Whitney #1 team, falling behind 1-2, then 1-4, and finally 1-6. With Whitney having just clinched the match with a 10th win, Takahashi and Edwards closed out a 6-2 win to make 8 sets for the Rams.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

It’s hard to do so much winning all season and then find yourself on the other end of things. In each tournament, there’s just one winner and a lot of solid players left without a trophy to hoist, but that’s only part of the equation.

This season I watched my girls grow as young people as well as tennis players. We got to experience the highs of victory and now learn to deal with the disappoint of defeat. Tennis is a beautiful game and opportunity to tackle some of these quintessential elements of being human, and we did it all together.

Did we lose? Yes, maybe in some way that hurts now but will fade in due time. We also gained a lot: 15 wins, a season-high #46 in Southern California ranking, best team in Santa Barbara County, and a 4th consecutive Tri-Valley League title. Most of all, every Cate player knows without doubt that they have teammates (and coaches!) for life.

What’s Next for Cate Girls’ Tennis?

This brings a close to the Cate tennis careers of Reyna Takahashi, Claire Bianchi, and Elsie Chamberlain. They take with them a 2023 CIF Championship and a 49-4 overall record across the last 3 seasons.

Cate will return 9 of 12 varsity players next season and looks poised to continue a tradition of excellence in the coming years.