Sarah Yang, foreground, and doubles partner Renee Handley haven’t loss a set this season together. (John Dvorak/Presidio Sports Photo)
San Marcos grabbed the inside track to the Channel League championship on Tuesday with an 11-7 victory over Dos Pueblos.
Yuka Perera and Kelly Coulson delivered three sets each in singles and the Royals’ top doubles team of Sarah Yang and Renee Handley swept three more.
The rest of the Royals helped push the team over the top. The No. 3 doubles team of senior Josephine Pulver and freshman Maura Mannix came through with a 7-6 win in the first round, rallying from deep deficits of 0-3 and 2-5 to get the victory.
“Instead of being 3-3 after the first round we’re up 4-2, and that to me, that was just huge,” said Royals head coach Fred Hartzman.
Hartzman credited Perera’s win over Dos Pueblos’ Katie Yang in the first round as another key victory.
Chargers head coach Anita Patton would have liked that first-round tiebreaker but didn’t think it was fatal.
“It doesn’t make or break a match that first round. It can set the mood, but it sometimes makes our team dig in a little bit more and want that second round,” Patton said.
Dos Pueblos’ top doubles teams of Saylor Yoos/Catherine Wang and Siena Applebaum/Serina Applebaum came back to win their final two rounds.
Handley and Yang are two seniors leading the doubles effort for San Marcos who have yet to lose a match together this season. They won their sets 6-1, 6-0, 6-1.
“We’ve been playing well together. I think we compliment each other nicely,” said Yang, a transfer student from Massachusetts. “We always just try and go out there and play the best we can.”
She’s new to California and new to the local cross-town matches. With the Royals and Chargers both entering the match unbeaten in league, there was a lot to play for.
“It’s really exciting. It’s pretty cool that there’s such a big rivalry between Santa Barbara schools so it was really exciting today to get this win,” Yang said.
The next match between the two schools is Thursday, October 15
“We know we’re going to meet them one more time and it just makes us hungry for that second matchup,” Patton said.
