After Corona del Mar lost to University a second time on Oct. 22, marking the distance between the county’s top two teams, Sea Kings coach Brian Ricker was still optimistic about where his team stood.
“We’ve gone way past my expectations,” said Ricker, in his 10th year as Corona del Mar’s girls tennis coach.
Corona del Mar persevered to its best season since 2009, despite a lineup that lacked the top tournament players other teams had and the need to develop four singles players because of the uncertainty of senior Lauren Thaxter‘s health throughout the season. The Sea Kings went 16-3 in the regular season and advanced to the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals, falling to eventual champion Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates.
The team lost two matches to University and one to Peninsula overall, defeating everyone else and cementing itself as the second-best team in Orange County. Ricker has been selected the Register’s Girls Tennis Coach of the Year for his efforts.
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To start the season, he created a rotation between Elena Fish and Shelby Anderson at No. 3 singles. Corona del Mar’s top singles player, Thaxter, suffers from atypical migraines and could not always complete a match. But Ricker made sure he could adjust his lineup without having to break up his doubles lineup.
Corona del Mar started the season with a championship at the California Girls Tennis Classic in Fresno.
The Sea Kings went on to defeat four of the top 10 teams in the CIF-SS Division 1 rankings over the course of the season.
