Corona del Mar’s girls tennis team scored a huge victory.
Then the Sea Kings had to try to keep the momentum going against a challenging schedule. And they have done very well.
That huge victory was Corona del Mar’s win over reigning three-time CIF-Southern Section Division 1 champion Peninsula on Sept. 20. Including that match, Peninsula has been defeated only twice over its past 76 matches.
Corona del Mar, which is No. 1 in the Orange County top 10 and this week replaced Peninsula at No. 1 in the Division 1 top 10, followed the Peninsula win with wins over Mater Dei in a nonleague match and Woodbridge in a Pacific Coast League match last week.
This week, they got an 11-7 league win over Beckman, which is No. 2 in CIF-SS Division 2, and beat San Clemente, 14-4, which is No. 5 in O.C.
It looks like the Sea Kings did fine with the momentum thing. Actually, though, according to senior singles player Jasie Dunk …
“We beat Peninsula, we were then ranked No. 1 and we were super-confident,” Dunk said Thursday before the Sea Kings played O.C. No. 2 University. “And I think maybe our team got a little too comfortable with where we were and that showed against Beckman. That was a lot closer than we thought it should be, so that was a reality check for us.”
Next week is going to be tough, too. Corona del Mar plays at Northwood (No. 4 O.C., No. 9 Division 1) in a league match on Tuesday, and at Dana Hills (No. 3 O.C., No. 8 Division 1) in a nonleague match on Wednesday. The Sea Kings will have to play Beckman, Northwood and University later in October before the league championships begin Oct. 26 and CIF-SS playoffs start Nov. 2.
Corona del Mar coach Jamie Gresh said the team is ready for the upcoming challenges.
“The girls were confident going in against Peninsula,” said Gresh, in his second year coaching Corona del Mar’s girls team. He will coach the school’s boys tennis team for a fifth year this coming spring.
“They were very ready to play,” he added. “We’d had four matches under our belts, and we were playing better and better with every match.”
Dunk, a senior, and junior Danielle Willson were the Register’s co-players of the week. Dunk will be at Cal next fall. Wilsson is ranked No. 23 in her age group in Southern California tennis.
Corona del Mar advanced to last year’s Division 1 semifinals in which the Sea Kings lost to Harvard-Westlake of Studio City. Corona del Mar has won eight CIF-SS girls tennis titles, the most recent in 2006 when the late Brian Ricker coached them.
The Sea Kings have a schedule that will get them ready for the playoffs and have done well with it so far.
“They’re eager for the challenge,” Gresh said.
But, as Dunk reminded, “We have to perform at our best, every day.”
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• Former Orange Lutheran and Canyon football coach Jim Kunau is the coach at Rancho Christian of Temecula which plays Brethren Christian on Friday at Ocean View. This is Kunau’s third season at Rancho Christian. He coached Lutheran to two CIF-SS championships.
• Mater Dei remained No. 3 in this week’s California football top 25 compiled by CalHiSports.com. Centennial of Corona and St. John Bosco are 1-2 respectively. The other O.C. teams in the state top 25 are No. 4 Mission Viejo, No. 11 Santa Margarita, No. 24 JSerra and No. 25 Servite.
• Orange Lutheran had been in the state top 25 earlier this season, so all six Trinity League teams have been in this season’s top 25. Lutheran is in the “on the bubble” category this week. Los Alamitos is the other “on the bubble” team from Orange County.
• Yorba Linda football player Jaydyn Webb is No. 28 in the program but he is wearing No. 14 on the field to honor teammate Luke Dawson. Dawson would be wearing No. 14 had he not tore his ACL this past spring, an injury that will prevent Dawson, a senior, from playing this season. “Dawson would have been our best player,” Yorba Linda coach Jeff Bailey said.
• Here are some recent college commitments: Mater Dei football defensive end Austin Faoliu to Arizona; Villa Park basketball forward Evan Battey to Colorado; Sonora swimmer Taylor Ault to Florida; Buena Park football tackle Ryan Nelson to Virginia; and Aliso Niguel baseball players Ethan Reed and Hunter Jump to USC and Nevada, respectively.
• Four O.C. players were selected to the USA Baseball 18-and-under national team: pitcher Hans Crouse of Dana Hills; pitcher Hagen Danner of Huntington Beach; third baseman Royce Lewis of JSerra; and pitcher/first baseman Nick Pratto of Huntington Beach.
• The CIF-SS Council, the section’s rules-making, rules-changing body, has its first meeting Tuesday. The Council won’t vote on it until January, but it will get its first look at a proposal that would make pitch count the means by which to limit how much pitchers work during a week. Pitch count will replace the 30-outs-a-week limitation, but just how the pitch count will work will be discussed.
• Added to the Santa Ana Unified School District Sports Hall of Fame last week were: Jim Musick, Santa Ana High (played football at USC, was O.C. Sheriff for decades); Doc Walker, Santa Ana Valley (UCLA, NFL football); Donn Moomaw, Santa Ana (UCLA football All-American, famous pastor); Kimberly Law, Santa Ana Valley (track, UCLA); and Manny Penaflor, Santa Ana (football player and soccer, track and wrestling coach).
Contact the writer: sfryer@scng.com
