Doubles play advances Segerstrom past Western

SANTA ANA- Segerstrom racked up enough sets before the final five started, marching past Western, 13-5, in Round 2 play of the CIF-SS Division V playoffs Monday afternoon at Segerstrom High.

Natalia Madrigal and Diane Wong completed their sweep at No. 1 doubles with a 6-0 victory in the final round to give Segerstrom its ninth set. Lydia Julian and Keyone Mckwardt followed at No. 2, 6-0, to clinch it.

Segerstrom, which finished third in the Golden West League, earned all nine doubles sets against the Pioneers, who finished second in the Orange League.

The Jaguars await the winner of Buckley and Windward in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Segerstrom won an earlier coin flip and will host.

"I'm definitely proud of my girls," Jaguars coach Dave Koeler said. "They have been working hard in practice and you can see how far they've come. Western doesn't give up. They have a bunch of good girls. I figured it would come down to doubles."

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday. But when Western arrived, the coaches decided the air quality was not acceptable and agreed to meet Monday. Both the Pioneers and Jaguars won wild-card matches Nov. 11, then beat their first-round opponents two days later.

"I felt the match ups would be close," Pioneer coach Paul Takahama said. "But they are a little deeper in doubles."

The final score did not reflect how close the early matches were. The Jaguars opened with three quick doubles victories, but Western countered with wins at No. 1 and 2 singles.

The No. 3 singles match between the Pioneer's Michelle Pham and the Jaguars' Anne Tran was separated by a game, 4-3, and was huge for each team. Tran pulled out a 6-4 victory and the Jaguars had a 4-2 lead after Round 1.

The Pioneers suffered a similar fate in Round 2. Julian and Mckwardt rallied for a 7-6 victory after. That close set again swung the round in favor of Segerstrom 4-2.

"If we get those two, I think we would have had a fighting chance," Takahama said.

It would have made the score going into Round 3 tied at 6 rather than 8-4 for the Jaguars. Koeler said he works plenty on his team's mental state and that was the difference in those matches.

"One thing I know about our girls is that we are mentally strong," he said. "We try to deal with the pressure situations. We work on that part because it comes down to the important points in important games."

Contact the writer: ctobolski@ocregister.com