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Cate Gets Back to Winning Ways after Tough Loss Against San Marcos

Last Friday, we faced the D1 Channel League champs in San Marcos High School and were narrowly defeated. They came in with a 5-star recruit in Yuka Perera (#124 in the nation), another nationally-ranked player in Kelly Coulson at #2 singles, as well as an undefeated #1 doubles team that had 35 wins to their credit this season.

When the dust settled, San Marcos came out the 11-7 victor, but we showed that we can compete with the best teams in Southern California, regardless of division. McKenna Madden and Summer Christensen pushed that #1 San Marcos team to the brink in a very tight 5-7 set and Julia Gan managed to recover from her first loss in over a month to blow by her secound round opponent and then beat an in-form Coulson in the third round.

It was a shame to lose the close match, but it’s also a reality-check at an important moment in the season. This coach had the unfortunate experience of playing for an undefeated Palm Springs High team in the 2005 season that was ranked #3 in CIF D2. We went on to get outplayed in the first round of playoffs, perhaps going in with the assumption of superiority. This match against San Marcos was great practice for the playoffs and it might serve us well to know we’re not invincible.

Today, Cate bounced back from the San Marcos match with a 16-2 win cross-town foe Carpinteria High School. We now move to 10-1 (7-0 in league play) with three matches remaining in the regular season. Continue reading “Cate Gets Back to Winning Ways after Tough Loss Against San Marcos”

Cate Girls’ Tennis Takes Tri-Valley Title, Remains Undefeated

With a 10-8 win at La Reina, Cate remained undefeated on the season (9-0, 6-0 in league) and clinched the Tri-Valley League title (we have two more league matches, but there is no scenario where another team could overtake us in the overall standings). This is Cate’s first title since moving up to Tri-Valley last season. Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Takes Tri-Valley Title, Remains Undefeated”

Cate Girls’ Tennis Remains Undefeated in Two Lopsided Matches

This week, we played Malibu High and Nordhoff High, both Tri-Valley League opponents. The net result is that we are now 5-0 in league play and can finish no worse than second in League this season. This means that Cate girls’ tennis has made the CIF playoffs for the fifth consecutive year and we are two-for-two since moving up to Division 2 and the Tri-Valley League.

On Tuesday, Malibu served up some very windy conditions, but our girls managed to sweep in doubles play and secure five wins in singles to garner a 14-4 victory. Here’s the scoreboard: Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Remains Undefeated in Two Lopsided Matches”

Cate Defeats CIF #2-seed Santa Ynez, Remains Undefeated

I’m happy to share that we’ve just beaten Santa Ynez 10-8 at Cate.

I’ve been very pleased with the play of the entire team so far this season and today was no different. Last night’s 13-5 win over Carpinteria High turned out to be just the prelude to what has been an outstanding week for Cate tennis.

Playing back-to-back matches, we managed to come out swinging again, taking four of the first six sets and holding that lead with 3-3 rounds the rest of the way against Santa Ynez. It almost didn’t turn out that way!

Julia Gan was down 4-1 and then 5-2 against a very experienced and highly-ranked Mary Kavaloski (as high as #533 in the country earlier this season). When I looked over at Julia at that point in the match, I saw that she had her “determined face” on and as she started to gain ground, I realized she was about to do something big. Like so many times in the last three years, once she flashes that face, the match almost always goes her way. She’s just a special player and we’re very fortunate to have her as part of our team. She ended up taking that set in a 7-4 tie-breaker and didn’t lose another game the rest of the match. Julia is now 17-1 overall this season.

In doubles, Summer Christensen and McKenna Madden pushed their unbeaten record to 12-0 (Summer is now 18-0 on the season). McKenna has played singles for us the majority of her four seasons at Cate, but she’s such an impressive doubles player that we can’t help but put her there. In Summer, she has a partner who has matured, this season, into a very strong doubles player herself. Together, they’re a real pleasure to watch.

Pairings Eva Herman/Janice Ng (9-3 together this season) and Emma Liberman/Cecelia Sanborn (11-4 together this season) held their ground in doubles at the #2 and #3 positions, winning two matches each. In the past, Cate tennis has often been reliant on getting most of our wins in singles, so it’s great to see us so solid all the way through the doubles lineup.

Prior to this season, we were 0-4 against Carp High, 0-3 against Rio Mesa, and 0-5 against Santa Ynez. We now stand at 6-0 (3-0 in league), having beaten all of those teams, plus last year’s Tri-Valley league champions (La Reina). In Santa Ynez and Rio Mesa, we’ve now beaten the #2 and #4 teams in CIF D3. Unfortunately, we’re a very small school that somehow ended up in division 2, but we think we can hold our own at that level, too.

We have been building some serious momentum over the course of this season, proving that we can compete with some of the stronger teams out there. I’m so proud of my girls, their play and their character. They have put in the hard work over the last few years and its starting to pay off. I can’t think of a more deserving bunch.

Cate Girls’ Tennis Still Unbeaten after First Two League Matches

On Tuesday, Cate faced Nordhoff in Ojai and came away with a resounding 16-2 victory. Despite playing a few short of a full roster and with some new doubles combinations, the team rallied to win the first 16 sets of play. Similarly, with two starters still out, Cate came up with the goods in today’s match against league rival, La Reina High, coming out with a 10-8 win.

Cate, now 4-0 (2-0 in league), faced a La Reina team (now 4-2) that had won handily in both of last season’s match-ups, but today was different. Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Still Unbeaten after First Two League Matches”

Cate Girls’ Defeat #3-Ranked Rio Mesa in 11-7 Win

Today, Cate played Rio Mesa High School up on the Cate Mesa and came away with an 11-7 win. Rio Mesa is currently ranked #3 in Div. 3 of CIF and we haven’t beaten them in many years, so it was a good day for us. They came in with a 4-1 record and two nationally ranked singles players, including freshman Jupneet Singh who is ranked #251 in the country in her class on tennisrecruiting.net.

In the first round, Julia Gan of Cate knocked off Rio #1 Dominique Derse who is currently ranked #80 in California and #556 in the nation. These two were no strangers, as they had featured in the finals of the Oxnard Winter Junior Tournament earlier this year (recap here), with Gan taking the win in a close three-setter.
Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Defeat #3-Ranked Rio Mesa in 11-7 Win”

Pre-Season Recap + First Match of the Girls’ Season

Pre-Season & Introductions

For the second year running, pre-season was a welcome indicator that a new, invigorated team mentality is taking hold at Cate. Now in my 13th season as a high school coach, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team come back so ready to pick up where they left off nine months earlier. We even got a visit from alum Victoria Herman, who jumped right into play without missing a beat.

In addition to a good level of readiness, the girls’ team will benefit from the addition of a new assistant coach, Sara Scott. Now a mother of two, living in the Santa Barbara area, Coach Sara brings a wealth of experience as a top-ranked junior player and successful D1 athlete (she played four years for the UCLA Bruins). Continue reading “Pre-Season Recap + First Match of the Girls’ Season”

Classic Tennis: Why Now is the Time for the Return of the Complete Player

In the last 20 years, how many top singles tennis players can you name that serve-and-volley? How many of the stars of the game utilize the slice for anything except as an occasional point-reset from the wings of the court? How many of these top players are playing doubles with any regularity?

The answer, unless you’re delusional, is nearly zero. The likes of Pete Sampras and Patrick Rafter were the last of the true serve-and-volleyers. Gone are the days when players such as John McEnroe managed to hold the #1 spot in singles for 170 weeks and 270 weeks in doubles, often concurrently. Continue reading “Classic Tennis: Why Now is the Time for the Return of the Complete Player”

Summer Tennis Camp 2015 Wrap-Up

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to learn from another highly decorated tennis player in Sara Scott. After a four-year turn at the #1 singles position for UCLA, Sara went on to be ranked as high as #400 in the world during her professional tennis career. She is a self-identified “aggressive baseliner,” and so her court was all about weight-transfer and driving through groundstrokes. After saying goodbye to Sara, we enjoyed a meal from Backyard Bowls before heading out for some more match-play in the afternoon.

During the last two days of camp, there was a dramatic shift in the Owl Points week-long competition, with Team Fresh 2.0 dominating the abbreviated format match-play in the afternoon and then fielding the top two doubles teams in the Friday morning doubles tournament. Coming from down 13-8, Team Fresh 2.0 ended up winning the competition 26-22.

Individual honors for the camp went to Taylor Kleine and Luke Williams, both of whom were models of competitive drive and sportsmanship.

Taylor won a number of doubles matches with different partners throughout the week and helped make the difference for his team on the last two days, going undefeated in singles and doubles play, earning himself MVP honors. Luke was our Coaches’ Award recipient, in part because of his strong play throughout the week, but even more so because he was a go-getter. Luke was ready to be challenged and to compete every day and was a total class-act in victory or defeat.

Harrison Fell and Ben Newton put on a spirited hat competition all week, something that has become a sort of tradition at Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp. Who will be top hat next year?

We ended the camp with our customary pizza party and then moved on to the team award. As part of the team competition, the winning team got to take a photo with their coach in the owl suit, and despite protests from the losing coach, Tristan and I lined up for one round of “butts up,” during which not a single camper dealt a glancing blow. Luckily for us, not even coach Ben hit his mark. Maybe next time, guys!

On behalf of my staff, I ‘d like to thank all the campers, celebrity coaches and celebrity players that participated in our second Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp. We’ll see you next year!

Team Anti-Fresh Takes Commanding Lead, but Team Fresh 2.0 Not Worried

In an interview following the day’s events, in which Team Anti-Fresh swept the point-earning opportunities to go up 8-2, Coach Ben of Team Fresh was quoted as saying, “I’m not worried.” When pressed on the matter, Coach Ben explained that his team was conserving its resources in order to make a final push during the last two days of camp. Coach Tristan declined to comment for reporters about his team’s dominance thus far, but it is widely held that the presence of his dog Boo at today’s camp may have made the difference for Team Anti-Fresh.

In reality, today’s Owl Points were earned by the narrowest of margins. Team Anti-Fresh won the early-morning footwork relay race by one stride and followed up with a narrow victory in Around-The-World just before lunch-time.

In the afternoon, Team Fresh battled back from a 5-9 deficit in sets to reach 8-9 before succumbing 6-3 in the final set of our high school format dual match.

Then, during DJ Conrad’s guest music set, everything was up for grabs until the last possible moment, with the mini-tennis tournament points changing hands in the ninth and final round of the day.

Here are some photos of the day’s action: