Without top singles player Rachel Decker-Sadowski, the Santa Barbara High girls tennis team didn’t know what to expect heading into Wednesday’s match against CIF runner-up Beverly Hills. Well, now the Dons know after easily beating the visiting Normans 14-4.
Santa Barbara overwhelmed Beverly Hills from the get-go, winning 5-of-6 sets in each of the first two rounds to clinch the match long before it was officially over.
The doubles teams of Arianna Hudson/Talia Hudson, Hanna Grokenberger/Kinzie McKeown and Aurora Garrison/Stephanie Thornton all swept their first two sets without allowing Beverly Hills to take more than three games in any.
DONS TENNIS TEAM PAGE, San Marcos vs. Santa Ynez Recap
If not for Brianna Morgan, it might have been more of the same on the singles side.
Morgan, Beverly Hills’ No. 1 singles player, succeeded in putting a dent in the Dons’ armor. The lanky sophomore used her powerful strokes and long reach to take down her two sets, including a 7-6 battle with Santa Barbara’s Ariel Beckerman.
“She was tough,” admitted Beckerman, praising Morgan for her quality of play.
Beckerman was arguably tougher though, breaking Morgan’s serve at 4-5 to extend the match and fighting back from a 0-5 deficit in the tiebreaker only to lose 7-5.
Junior Grace Flintermann, who is new to the team this year, picked up two points for Santa Barbara in singles while avoiding Morgan, winning her sets 6-1, 6-1.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect or where I was going to play,” Flintermann said of joining a top-flight program like the Dons. “I’ve just been trying to do what I can do and I found my niche on the team. It just happened to be in the singles spot and I’m doing well.”
After the Dons took a 10-2 lead, head coach Steve Geremia emptied his bench, always happy to be able to play 16 players in a match.
“We’re doing really well,” said a confident Beckerman. “Our team is a lot stronger this year. We have better singles players and we have a lot of depth.”
Beckerman and the other starters appreciate that depth, especially with four matches in four days like what Santa Barbara (3-0-1) faces this week. The Dons return to Channel League play on Thursday against Dos Pueblos and then host University on Friday.
Decker-Sadowski remains day-to-day.
SANTA BARBARA 14, BEVERLY HILLS 4
SB Singles – Haley Hranicky-Galitzer 1-1, Ariel Beckerman 1-1, Grace Flinterman 2-0, Aubrey Macker 0-1, Lizzy Langhorne 1-0, Taryn Mjelde 1-0. BH Singles – Brianna Morgan 2-0, Victoria Mamatova 0-3, Nicole Levy 0-3. SB Doubles – Arianna Hudson/Talia Hudson 2-0, Hanna Grokenberger/Kinzie McKeown 2-0, Aurora Garrison/Stephanie Thornton 2-1, Emily Baum/Savannah Fox 1-0, Stephanie Conliffe/Alex Demopoulos 1-0. BH Doubles – Megan Margolin/Amanda Zalameda 1-2, Alison Isaacman/Erica Lee 0-3, Hillary Monroy/Shelby Bernstein 0-3.
