San Marcos High’s girls tennis team secured second place in the Channel League with a 13-5 victory over crosstown rival Dos Pueblos on Tuesday at the Royals’ courts.
The Royals swept the two league matches against DP, but unlike the first meeting, which went down to the wire, this one was decided early in the third round.
Senior Kiki Katsev won the deciding point with a 6-1 victory over Nicoletta Bradley.
“Kiki is total fighter,” San Marcos coach Megan Cotich said. “This was a great match for her to have in her last match against DP. That was really sweet, because Nicoletta is a great player and to have a 6-1 victory over her is really impressive.”
The Royals (7-5, 4-2) also got a huge win from No. 2 doubles team Amy Ransohoff and Christine Pearson. They battled from behind to beat DP’s Kim Preston-Oriane Matthys 7-4 in a tiebreaker. They trailed 3-0 in the tiebreaker.
“I think that’s a great win, to stick with it and really fight it out,” said Cotich. “I’m proud of them, just in general. They’ve had a wonderful season. They’ve been able to come through in matches when they’ve been behind.
It was a tough day for DP’s No. 1 doubles team. Earlier, Kim Preston and Nicole Eskenazi were playing Shelby Zylstra and Amy Kinsella in the first round when a heckler started getting on Eskenazi for her line calls.
“It was more than she could handle,” DP coach Suzy Dahl said. “That took her out of the match, mentally. That was unfortunate. She’s a strong player and a wonderful girl.”
Zylstra and Kinsella won the match 6-2.
“That first-round doubles match was difficult to lose,” Dahl said. “Even though the score wasn’t close, it was close up to the point when the spectator intervened and it changed things around. My girl felt like her integrity was questioned. She has made nothing but honest calls. He was calling out that the girls were making bad line calls. It rattled her because nobody questions her line calls.”
The heckler left the area and there were no more problems for the rest of the match.
“It’s unfortunate when girls can’t just get it done on the court and other people feel they have to get involved,” said Dahl.
That wasn’t the only setback to the Chargers’ No. 1 doubles team. Matthys, Eskenazi’s replacement, suffered a sprained ankle later in the day.
The Chargers (8-6, 3-4) got three points for singles standout Lauren Stratman. She didn’t lose a game in sweeping her three sets.
“She’s as strong as could be,” Dahl said. “Her job was to wear people out. As much as she tried to keep people on the court for a while, she couldn’t help but finish it off quickly.”
Caitlin Mannix earned two wins in singles for the Royals, and San Marcos dominated the doubles with nine victories.
“We’re just strong in doubles,” Cotich said. “Doubles has really been our backbone, and our singles give us a couple of wins there to clinch the team win.”
Cotich said it was very satisfying to sweep the season series against the Chargers.
“It’s really nice. This has been our goal all year, to beat DP. To beat them once is awesome, and to beat them twice is something special that none of these girls have been a part of.”
SAN MARCOS 13, DOS PUEBLOS 5
Singles—DP: Lauren Stratman 3-0, Nicoletta Bradley 1-2, Chloe Warinner 1-2. SM — Kiki Katsev 2-1, Caitlin Mannix 2-1, Chloe Maassen 0-3. Doubles—DP: Kim Preston-Nicole Eskenazi 0-1, Kim Preston-Oriane-Matthys 0-2, Rachel-Amspoker-Katie O’Brien 0-3, Gaby McDaniel-Sophie Rasmussen 0-3. SM — Amy Kinsella-Shelby Zylstra 3-0, Amy Ransohoff-Christine Pearson 3-0, Liz Morris-Parisa Fallahi 3-0.
