Cate Girls’ Tennis split a pair of matches on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, dropping a 14-4 decision against San Marcos before rallying to a 17-1 victory over St. Bonaventure on Senior Day.

Cate played solidly in the first round against 14-0 San Marcos High School, with the match hanging at 2-3 with a tie-breaker under way at #3 doubles. In the end, the partnership of Julianna Forry and Ellie Tunnell wasn’t quite enough to overcome a stacked #3 San Marcos team, dropping the tie-breaker 6-8.

The trend of closer sets going in San Marcos’ favor continued in the remaining two rounds, with Cate dropping 4 more sets that went 4-6 or 5-7, managing to only snag two more set-wins (both in the second round). The top performer on the day was senior captain Aminah Hill, who picked up two wins and played a solid 3-6 set against Natasha Gill, the top San Marcos player.

The St. Bonaventure match was a different affair altogether, with a total of 16 Cate students (including four JV players) participating in the 17-1 victory. Junior Ellie Tunnell went 3-0 on the day, as did sophomore Sophie Alijani, as the only two Cate students to play all three rounds.

Senior captains Aminah Hill and Emily May won their doubles matches 6-0, 6-0, while senior Ashi Kamra took Hill’s place at #1 singles and went 6-1, 6-1 on the day. The fourth Cate senior, Julianna Forry, won her lone set on the day playing at #2 doubles with Alijani by a 6-2 score.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

The St. Bonny match was a real joy to participate in, with so many parents around for parents’ weekend and so many of our girls able to be involved in the match. It’s always fun to switch up the lineup, and the truth is, the way we practice and learn cohesive strategy (particularly in doubles), the new roles tend to come easily to the girls. I’m also happy to see that our top JV girls have improved this season and hopefully one or two of them will reach the next level and join us on varsity next season.

As far as the San Marcos match goes, I feel that match was just what we needed as we turn our attention towards the high level competition of individuals and team playoffs. San Marcos the #5-seeded team in D2, so I see that team as equivalent to the best we could potentially face in our D3 playoffs next week.

I have seen time and time again at Cate that when these girls are challenged and take a tough loss, they take the experience well and are better the next time. For example, we turned a 5-13 loss against Foothill Tech earlier this season into an 11-7 win just a few weeks later.

Going farther back, we moved from D4 to D2 in 2014 after a CIF QF appearance, and struggled with the higher level in the playoffs the following season. However, in 2016 and 2017 we rallied, reaching the CIF D2 QF’s and earning our spot amongst the top teams in California in D1 for 2018-2020.

As I try to tell my teams every year, the latin root of the word competition means “to seek together.” This means the goal of competition is to push your opponent to their best and have them do the same for you, which results in everyone rising to their full potential. When you take this approach, it’s hard to be disappointed in a hard-fought loss like our match against San Marcos, because we earned ourselves access to that higher potential level for the future.

What’s next for Cate Girls’ Tennis?

Cate fields two singles players and two doubles teams in the Tri-Valley League Individuals Tournament today at Thacher School. Aminah Hill and Alyna Takahashi enter the draw as #3 and #4 seeds, respectively. In doubles Emily May/Ella Chang are the #2 seeds, while Ashi Kamra/Colette Chang enter the draw at #3.