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.