SEAL BEACH – The odds were stacked against Summer Dvorak early Monday afternoon at the CIF-SS Individual tennis championships.
At the start of the day, having the chance to play for a singles title was the goal for the Laguna Beach senior. But less than an hour into her match against Peninsula of Rancho Palos Verdes’ Ryan Peus, surviving the semifinals looked like a long shot at best.
Dvorak handily lost her first set to the nationally ranked sophomore, and trailed 4-1 midway through the second.
“I had really low energy in that first and second set,” she later explained. “I just had to keep fighting to pump myself up.”
That she did.
Dvorak mounted a tremendous semifinal comeback, qualified for the singles championship and wound up finishing second overall in the Southern Section after a straight-sets loss to Peninsula’s Ena Shibahara, 6-2, 6-2, in the final Monday afternoon at the Seal Beach Tennis Center.
“It feels good,” Dvorak said of her runner-up finish. “I wouldn’t have thought I’d make it this far.”
Shibahara, ranked as the top junior in the state and the No. 3 player in the country, claimed her second consecutive CIF singles title.
The Panthers star opened her day against Capistrano Valley’s Katie Ta in the semis, playing on a court adjacent to Dvorak and Peus’ back-and-forth affair.
After taking the first set of the semis, 6-2, Shibahara and Ta went blow for blow in a dazzling second set.
“The first set was pretty close looking at every game,” Ta said. “In the second set, I went up 2-1 early. I don’t know, though. Ena’s just such a good player.”
The two highly regarded talents battled to a 6-6 score, sending the set into a tie-break. Shibahara grabbed the first three points of the tie-break, and went on to clinch the match with a 7-6 (7-2) second-set victory.
With Shibahara waiting in the clubhouse, it looked as if the championship would come down to two Peninsula players. But Dvorak turned things around with her back up against the wall.
After dropping the opening set 6-1, and trailing 4-1 in the second, Dvorak won three straight games and eventually squeaked out a 7-5 win to send the match into the decisive third set.
The Breakers’ top singles player capped off the three-hour epic with a 6-3 win in the third set, advancing to the championship finale, where she matched up against Shibahara.
After dropping the opening set, 6-2, Dvorak had an opportunity to go up 3-1 in the second, serving at 40-0. Shibahara won five straight points to break, and went on to win four consecutive games to seal her second straight CIF crown.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
