On Thursday, coach Steve Geremia had the Santa Barbara girls tennis team doing the same thing it does every year about this time.
And that is playing the toughest competition Southern California has to offer.
The Dons dispatched another top program in Mira Costa, a top-five team in Division I last season, in a 12-6 victory on the Santa Barbara High tennis courts.
The Dons (3-0) have already beaten perennial-power University and are currently trying to reschedule a match with defending CIF Division-I champion Dana Hills. Beverly Hills, last year’s runner up in Division II, lies ahead on the Dons’ list of non-conference opponents. That match is set for Wednesday at Santa Barbara.
“They’re a quality team with quality players,” said Geremia of the Mustangs.
No. 1 singles player Rachel Decker-Sadowski, the defending Channel League champion, took her two sets before giving way for others to get some playing time. In all, 15 Dons saw the court on Thursday.
Geremia was ecstatic with the play from his new-found combination of Haley Hranicky-Galitzer and Kinzie McKeown. According to Geremia, Hranicky-Galitzer is “getting better every day,” and her genuine love of the game is contagious.
Other solid performances were turned in by the veteran doubles team of seniors April Ludwick and Zoe Miller, who topped Mira Costa’s top-two doubles teams.
(Photo of Santa Barbara’s Rachel Decker-Sadowski taken by John Dvorak)
