Month: November 2015

Cate School faced Murrieta Valley yesterday in the CIF D2 Quarterfinal Round and, sadly, we came out on the losing end (4-14).

Murrieta Valley had too much firepower in singles, sweeping all nine sets. In the first round, it looked that Julia Gan was going to work her magic one more time, going up 3-0 against Jovana Kuljanin, who is ranked #148 in the country and will be playing D1 tennis under scholarship next season. In the end, Gan fell 5-7 in a very close set. From there, it was all Murrieta Valley in singles.

Doubles play was much more even, with Cate’s talented #1 team Summer Christensen/McKenna Madden taking two-of-three. Eva Herman and Janice Ng continued their strong post-season play, winning two sets as well.

In the end, we just came up against a stronger team. There’s nothing more we could have done. My girls made me very proud today, not just in the way they battled, but also in the way they carried themselves. The Murrieta Valley coach remarked to me that our team was the nicest and most sportsmanlike opponent they had faced all season. I can think of no better way to face this defeat.

For Julia Gan, Jackie Cai, and the doubles team of Christensen and Madden, the season isn’t quite over yet, with CIF individuals still ahead at the Cate School on Monday, November 23rd.

For those of you who are interested in the quality of opponent we faced in this match (besides the fact that their school is 12-times the size of ours), here are the top 5 players from Murrieta Valley, who combined to win all 12 sets they played: Jovana Kuljanin, Alana Andrews, Faith Pearson, Kelsey Lajom, Ashley Nishimoto

 

Cate has taken a 12-6 victory in Oak Park this afternoon and now advances to the CIF D2 quarterfinal round.

In singles, Julia Gan swept, beating two very high-level tournament players in Sasha Romanova and Sylvie Van Cott. Jackie Cai also came up with a big win over Romanova and played Van Cott to a tie-breaker in the final round. Cai finished 2-1 on the day.

Perhaps the most crucial moment of the match was Gan’s first-round win over Romanova, which was taken in a tie-breaker, 7-5. I think that win put Oak Park off-balance, because they’re used to sweeps from Romanova and Van Cott. It was pretty clear that Romanova was shaken from the first set while playing Cai, who ended up winning her set against the Oak Park #1, too. Continue reading “Cate Downs Oak Park Eagles 12-6, Advances to CIF D2 Quarterfinals”

Cate beat Trabuco Hills 14-4 today, at home, in a match very different from last year’s first round. In 2014, Cate had to beat Fullerton in a wildcard round (at Fullerton) in order to reach a first-round matchup against #2 Murrieta Valley (away again). That worked out to two 12+ hour days of travel and competition that left the team exhausted.

This time around, thanks to a stellar regular season that warranted the #5 seeding in CIF D2, Cate got a home match against Trabuco Hills in the first round. Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Advances in CIF with 14-4 Win”