Category: Cate Girls’ Tennis

The #4-seeded Cate girls’ tennis team moved to 11-1 on the season with an empathic victory today over Oak Park. The first-round playoff match was played at the Cate School in Carpinteria.

Singles play was led by Grace Fuss and Jackie Cai, who both swept their three sets, including wins over Sylvie Van Cott, a strong player who just last year was ranked in the top-300 in the US for her class. Sophomore Sydney Burton also put in an impressive performance to add two sets on the day.

Doubles was much the same as singles, with Cate dominating at the top two positions. Summer Christensen and Sarah Polowczak moved to 26-0 in team matches this year with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 sweep and the combination of Eva Herman/Janice Ng won two sets before being subbed out in the third round. Carol Cai and Katherine Grossman had a tough start, losing to the #3 Oak Park team, before recording impressive 6-1 victories in each of the next two rounds.

We came out nervous; I think we were down on 4 courts early on in the first set. Despite the slow start, we managed to snag four sets in the first round and never looked back. I’m proud of the way we got better and better throughout the match. Hopefully the playoff jitters are out and we can get off to a better start in the next match, but overall, we’re playing great tennis.

Cate will play Desert Valley League Champs Xavier Prep in the Round of 16 on Friday. The match involves a 4+ hour drive for Cate, who lost the home/away coin-flip. The match will be played at 1pm at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, host of the BNP Paribas professional tournament.

This is a great opportunity for our girls to compete at a high level and at a world-class venue. The drive will be tough, but we’re ready for the challenge. I grew up in Palm Springs and have played on those courts many times, so we’ll be ready for the slower court surface and other adjustments we need to make to be successful against Xavier.

With quarterfinal and semifinal rounds complete in Tri-Valley League Individuals, Cate Girls’ Tennis has taken both doubles berths and one of the two singles berths that will advance to compete in the CIF Individuals Tournament. Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Dominates League Tournament, Advances 5 players to CIF Individuals”

Fourteen Cate students played in a 15-3 victory over Foothill Tech at Ventura College today. The win moves the team to 7-0 in Tri-Valley League play and 9-1 overall.

In singles, sophomore Sarah Polowczak moved up from the doubles lineup to sweep her three sets of play (6-0, 6-2, 7-5), including an impressive recovery after being down 1-4 in the final round. Freshman Grace Fuss added 6-0 wins in both of her sets on the day and Janice Ng and Kate Tunnell each added a win of their own. Continue reading “Cate Girls’ Tennis Continues Push towards Undefeated Season in League Play”

Cate girls’ tennis moves to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in Tri-Valley League play after an 11-7 victory against Thacher today.

Cate and Thacher both adjusted their lineups for the second matchup, but the result was the same, with Cate led by a dominant performance at the top two doubles positions. Summer Christensen and Sarah Polowczack, now 18-0 on the season dropped just a single game in three sets of play and Eva Herman/Janice Ng lost only three in their sweep of the Thacher doubles lineup.

Thacher’s Libby Kern had a remarkable day in singles, playing what Thacher coach Peter Fagan described as the best match of her life. Still, Cate managed to pick up five sets in singles, and freshman Carol Cai impressed on her singles debut by pushing Kern, a senior, to 4-6 in the final round of play. Continue reading “Cate Triumphs Again in Battle of Tri-Valley League’s Top Teams”

Cate d. Carpinteria 17-1

Cate performed well in both singles and doubles during their 17-1 victory today at Carpinteria High.

Sophomore Sarah Polowczak got her first singles start of the season and came out of the gates at a full gallop with three 6-0 sets. Grace Fuss continued her impressive freshman season, picking up another sweep, and Katherine Grossman added two sets to the singles tally. Continue reading “Cate Splits Two Contests, Continues to Compete at High Level”

Cate Girls’ Tennis picked up two more convincing wins in this week’s matches against league opponents and move to 5-0 on the season.

On Tuesday, La Reina came to Cate Mesa with two strong singles players (Sophia Aulicino, Tiara Nourishad), who took 5-of-6 sets, but failed to pick up a solitary set in doubles play. Grace Fuss won twice in singles and Jackie Cai added another set to make a 12-6 victory for the Rams. Continue reading “Cate Picks Up Two More Wins, Early Favorite for Tri-Valley League Title”

In the span of 48 hours Cate Girls’ Tennis has made great strides in the defense of our position as an elite Division 2 tennis team. Facing two long drives to away matches against tough opponents, we are now out the other side with two convincing wins and some powerful momentum. Continue reading “Cate Defeats #2-Ranked Santa Ynez, then Dismantles Defending CIF D5 Champions”

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