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 