SEAL BEACH — Katie Ta felt a little shaky at the start of play on Wednesday.
Ta, a Capistrano Valley junior, didn’t practice on Tuesday and had historically struggled against Dana Hills’ Margo Pletcher.
But once Ta took the court, those jitters gave way to a dominant performance.
Ta defeated both Pletcher and Oak Park’s Annette Gulak in straight sets at CIF-SS Individuals on Wednesday at Seal Beach Tennis Center, making her the only Orange County singles player in the semifinals. She will face top-seeded Annika Ringblom from Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates on Thursday. Laguna Hills’ Alex Valenstein and Cypress’ Elyse Pham each won one match on Wednesday before losing in the quarterfinals.
Two county doubles pairings remain among the four in the semifinals and both are from University. Danielle Pham and Yuki Asami came from behind to beat Tesoro’s Layla Rodriguez and Justine Huang in a third set in the quarterfinals. Celine Gruaz and Kyla Scott defeated teams from Campbell Hall of Los Angeles and San Marino without dropping a set.
The semifinals begin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at Seal Beach Tennis Center.
Pham and Asami, the top seed in the draw, said they were feeling a little bummed after dropping the first set to Rodriguez and Huang. But they used their experience from past comebacks to pull together to win the final two sets, 6-1 and 6-3.
“We were starting to play a lot better and they were breaking down,” Asami said.
Pham and Asami will play Brentwood of Los Angeles’ Michie Aubuchon and Guilia McDonnell in the semifinals. Gruaz and Scott will play Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates’ Sara Khattab and Risa Nakagawa.
Ta led Capistrano Valley to an undefeated season in the Sea View League and won the league’s singles title against Valenstein. But she said she doesn’t think she had ever beaten Pletcher before Wednesday and she lost badly against Gulak earlier this year.
She ran both of them ragged at Seal Beach, commanding both matches from start to finish.
Pham, the Cypress senior, played what was perhaps the match of the day in the Round of 16, winning a three-set match with Northwood’s Chloe Pham that lasted more than three hours. Chloe Pham took the first set 7-5, but Elyse Pham battled back and won the last two sets. Some games in the match lasted as long as 20 minutes.
