Ariana Hudson puts her all into a forehand return of serve on Thursday.
Taryn Mjelde and the doubles team of Stephanie Thornton and Kaitlyn Rodnick rallied in their first-round sets to propel the Santa Barbara High girls tennis team to a 15-3 Channel League victory over visiting San Marcos on Thursday.
“We were down in four matches and came back to win three of them,” Santa Barbara coach Steve Geremia. “That was big because if you’re down 4-2 in the first round, you honestly still believe you can win the match. But when you’re down 4-1 you no longer have that belief.
“We kept hammering away at them,” he added. “They were easily good enough to beat us.”
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Geremia said Mjelde was tenacious in her two sets. “She returns a lot of balls and makes you not want to play tennis anymore,” he said. “She played against their No. 2 and was down, but she kept returning the ball and won the set.
“She has tremendous concentration and a tremendous competitive spirit.”
Thornton-Rodnick put the Dons ahead 5-1 with hard-earned a 6-3 win over San Marcos’ red-hot doubles team of Liz Morris and Parisa Fallahi.
“If we lose that, the race is on,” Geremia said.
The Dons (5-3, 2-0) dominated the doubles, losing only one set.
In singles, Caitlin Mannix won two sets for San Marcos (3-3, 1-1), while Haley Hranicky-Galitzer went 3-0 for the Dons.
Geremia reported that Santa Barbara’s match today against University was canceled.
Santa Barbara 15, San Marcos 3.
Singles—SB: Grace Flinterman 2-1, Taryn Mjelde 1-1, Haley Hranicky-Galitzer 3-0, Hailey DeBoer 1-0. SM: Catilin Mannix 2-1, Jordn Lund 0-3, Chloe Maassen 0-3.
Doubles—SB: Ariana Hudson-Talia Hudson 2-0, Stephanie Thornton-Kaitlyn Rodnick 2-0, Emily Baum-Lauren Feuer 1-0, Lisa Santree-Karina Thornton 0-1, Meagan Grant-Karina Thornton 2-0. SM: Amy Ransohoff-Christine Pearson 1-2, Liz Morris-Parisa Fallahi 0-3, Hanna McDaniel-Stephanie Manson 0-3.
Record-SB 5-3, 2-0; SM 3-3, 1-1.
