No local girls’ tennis players advance past first day of league tourney
BURBANK — The girls’ tennis players from Crescenta Valley and Glendale highs can now concentrate all their efforts on next week’s CIF Southern Section team playoffs.
That’s because Falcons and Nitros athletes, along with a trio from Hoover, weren’t able to move on to the second day of the Pacific League Tournament.
A Tornadoes doubles team and singles players from Crescenta Valley and Glendale won their opening-round matches but fell in the second round Monday afternoon at Burroughs High, as players battled temperatures that reached 100 degrees.
The semifinals will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Burroughs.
“We are very proud to have as many representatives as we did in the tournament,” said Glendale coach Tom Gossard, whose team placed fourth in the Pacific League and is ranked No. 2 in Division IV. “We knew that when we beat Burroughs for fourth place Thursday that we were going to bring our full team today.
“There is absolutely no pressure for the girls today. We are playing with house money. We get to hit the ball hard against some great competition and get ready for the playoffs next week.”
Crescenta Valley, which finished runner-up behind Arcadia and is ranked No. 1 in Division III, also looked at Monday’s tournament as a chance to prepare for the playoffs.
“Having success in this tournament is nice,” Falcons coach Sam Hyun said. “But we are more focused on the team playoffs. We wanted to come out and play our best and see how far we could go, but we really look at it as a good practice session. We have to get prepared for the playoffs next week.”
In singles, No. 7 Celine Khachiki of Glendale won her opening match against No. 10 Janette Faraj of Burbank, 8-4, before falling in the second round to No. 1 Rachelle Yang of Arcadia, 8-1.
Melissa Muradoglu of Crescenta Valley, the No. 5 seed, earned a first-round victory against No. 12 Sophia Flippin of Hoover, who had to retire, 7-2, before losing in the second round to No. 4 Chloe Barberi of Arcadia, 8-4. Teammate Victoria Borkowski, at No. 8, dispatched No. 9 Kristen Lee of Glendale, 8-2, and fell to No. 1 Jordan Wallace of Pasadena, 8-1.
“It was hot out there today and I’m pretty sure it affected everyone,” Muradoglu said. “The players were always talking about how hot it was during the matches, although you might not see that from the outside.
“You just have to deal with it and we just try and ignore it as much as possible and just do our best.”
In their opening matches, No. 16 Anjana Saravanan of Crescenta Valley lost to Wallace 8-0, No. 13 Ani Azarian of Glendale fell to Barberi, 8-1, and No. 11 Polin Crete of Crescenta Valley lost to No. 6 Chloe Bookmyer of Burroughs, 8-1.
In doubles, the No. 10 Hoover duo of Jessica Chang and Katia Karioti began with an 8-4 win against No. 7 Marina Saroyan and Leah Baghdassarian of Crescenta Valley, 8-4, before losing to No. 2 Angela Qiu and Aubrie Weissbach of Arcadia, 8-1.
Suffering first-round defeats were No. 15 Moria Mailed and Ellen Zhazaryan of Glendale against Qui and Weissbach, 8-0, No. 11 Michelle Yoylan and Nicole Avakian of Glendale fell to No. 6 Sandy Le May and Jackie Samsell of Burroughs, 8-0, No. 14 Kiran Hamkins and Camille Gabney of Crsecenta Valley suffered an 8-0 loss to No. 3 Sunny Ng and Francesca Yao of Arcadia, 8-0, No. 4 Rachel Shin and Min Ju Jung of Crescenta Valley were defeated by No. 13 Sydney Tran and Jolene Huey of Arcadia, 8-0, and No. 8 Emi Guzman and Mo-Mo Guzman of Glendale fell to No. 9 Bella La Manna and Elza Vardanyan of Burbank, 8-4.
Arcadia will have three doubles teams and two singles players in Wednesday’s semifinals.
Twitter: @jefftsports
