Thursday’s security threat at San Marcos High turned out to be a false alarm, yet it effectively postponed all of the Royals’ athletic events that day, including the girls tennis match at Dos Pueblos.
On Monday, San Marcos’ threat to topple the Chargers proved to be very real as the Royals locked down Dos Pueblos in the rescheduled match, an 11-7 decision.
“We were really ready for Thursday. We were really amped and then it got postponed,” said Royals senior Amy Kinsella, winner of two crucial tiebreakers with partner Nicolette Leslie. “We came out today a little bit shaky, not as ready, but it felt really good. I’m so happy.
“We haven’t beat DP in so long. We were trying to think about it. It’s been at least eight years,” said Kinsella, a four-year player whose sister played for the Royals before her. “That was our goal for the season was to beat DP because we never have. Everyone’s really excited, kind of on a high from that.”
While not at full strength, San Marcos’ doubles teams led the Royals to victory as they have all season.
“We were without Shelby Zlystra, one of our top doubles players, and Nicolette Leslie came in and played out of her mind,” said Royals head coach Megan Cotich, who was handed 8-of-a-possible-9 points from her doubles teams.
Amy Ransohoff and Christine Pearson remained a rock in the Royals lineup, sweeping their sets in a fourth straight match.
Kinsella and Leslie took three sets but had to work extra hard for the two tiebreak wins. The Royals clinched the match when Kinsella and Leslie outdueled the Chargers’ No. 1 Nicole Eskenazi and Kim Preston in the final-round tiebreaker 9-7.
“We’ve been friends since the fifth grade so it was really fun to play with her. She stepped it up a lot,” Kinsella said.
Reigning Channel League singles champion Lauren Stratman breezed through three sets for the Chargers, winning one set while giving up only a single point (24-1).
DP had more success in singles with Nicoletta Bradley, who posted wins in two of her three sets.
Caitlin Mannix came through with a winning day in singles for San Marcos, giving the Royals the extra points needed to pull out the win.
San Marcos put itself in second place in league with a 2-1 record while Dos Pueblos is 2-2.
SAN MARCOS 11, DOS PUEBLOS 7
SM Singles – C. Mannix 2-1, K. Katsev 1-2, Chloe Maassen 0-3. DP Singles – Lauren Stratman 3-0, Nicoletta Bradley 2-1, C. Warriner 1-2.
SM Doubles – Kinsella/Leslie 3-0, Ransohoff/Pearson 3-0, Fallahi/Morris 2-1. DP Doubles – Eskenazi/Preston 1-2, Schmitz/Mattys 0-3, O’Brien/Amspoker 0-3.
