Dana Hills girls do well at CIF Individuals

NEWPORT BEACH - A day after earning its third consecutive team final appearance, Dana Hills turned its attention to the individual portion of the girls tennis season.

The Dolphins had four players advance from Friday’s CIF-SS individual tournament at the Tennis Club in Newport Beach, the most of any county school.

In singles, senior Kaitlyn Christian (Orange Lutheran), senior Megan Heneghan (Beckman), junior Joanna Smith (Dana Hills) and freshman Alyssa Smith all won three rounds to move on. Christian, Heneghan, and Joanna Smith each advanced last year.

Alyssa Smith needed three sets to defeat Laguna Hills’ Jocelyn Lu 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 to advance in her first individual tournament.

“Jocelyn was on her A game,” Dolphins coach Mark Spearman said. “She was playing tough. I told Alyssa she needed to start mixing up the pace. She hung in there on pure determination.”

In doubles, Cassidy Spearman and Jessica Perez (Dana Hills), Hayley Thompson and Kyra Scott (University), Hayley Miller and Tiffany Cheng (St. Margaret’s) and Melissa Matsuoka and Hailey Hogan (Corona del Mar) qualified for the next round, which is held Dec. 3 at Seal Beach Tennis Center.

Matsuoka and Hogan reached the semifinals as sophomores. However, Hogan sat her junior season out, while Matsuoka qualified in singles last season. They are expected to earn the No. 1 seeds this season for the Round of 16.

Christian, who lost in last year’s championship match, dropped just three games Friday. She beat Laguna Beach’s Madeline Jaeger, 6-0, 6-3, in the final round to move on. She is also expected to gain the No. 1 seed.

Both Heneghan and Joanna Smith reached the quarterfinals of last year’s individual tournament and rolled through Friday’s prelims. The pair lost one game combined in 12 sets.