NEWPORT BEACH – Technically speaking, the first round of the Corona del Mar-Dana Hills girls tennis match concluded six weeks ago.
Because of an early-September rainout, the two county powers were forced to delay the conclusion of their nonleague encounter for 42 days, picking up a competitive 3-3 match from the second round Wednesday afternoon.
The score line remained tied, 9-9, at Corona del Mar High, but the top-ranked Sea Kings owned an 88-66 edge in total number of games for the tiebreaker, collecting another victory over a CIF-ranked opponent.
“I didn’t even remember who these girls were,” CdM junior Jasie Dunk said, referring to the postponement. “It’s strange, especially because it’s 3-3, it’s close, you start in the second round and I have to go up against their No. 1 (Courtney Swift). So it was out of the blue.”
Dunk’s 6-1 win over Swift was the start of a dominant CdM singles showing. Dunk and Danielle Willson each went 2-0, and Siena Sharf went 1-1 as the Sea Kings (15-1) won five of the day’s six individual sets with no score line being closer than 6-1.
Dana Hills (10-4), ranked sixth in the county, went 5-1 in doubles, but was unable to match the the Sea Kings’ convincing score lines.
“Our girls played well, came out a little slow in the second round today, but they fought back, had a great final round,” Dolphins coach Justin Green said. “Our doubles is clearly our strength, and I feel like all of our doubles teams are pretty equal. We were just one set away.”
With all the singles sets in the books, the Dolphins trailed, 9-6, in the final round. Dana’s doubles teams swept the third round, as Dana Mackensen and Jacklyn Melkonian notched a 6-4 win over CdM’s top duo of Camellia Edalat and Erica Chen.
The Sea Kings have reeled off 12 consecutive wins since its lone loss to Peninsula. Six of their 15 wins have come against CIF-SS top-10 ranked opponents.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
