Top seeds forfeit in individual tournament
NEWPORT BEACH – The top sectional seeds in the singles and doubles draw of the CIF-SS individual tournament both were eliminated Friday at Corona del Mar without losing a match.
Edison senior Sarah Stadfelt missed the event altogether and was disqualified after failing to arrive by 11:45 a.m., more than two hours after the check-in time.
Stadfelt and Edison coach Dave Lemon thought the event began Nov. 30.
“We’re brokenhearted over this,” Edison athletic director Rich Boyce said. “When I first heard about it, my heart just sunk. We were confused, but there are no excuses. We messed up. We punished a girl for something she couldn’t control.”
Boyce pulled Stadfelt out of class, but she was unable to get her gear out of her house in time to make the deadline.
“I’m just devastated for her,” Boyce said. “Obviously, this isn’t how she wanted to go out.”
The top-seeded doubles team, University’s Kyra Scott and Yuki Asami, also forfeited after a funeral kept Asami from playing in the tournament’s third round. Due to the forfeit, Laguna Beach’s Brooke Michaels and Kira Hamilton joined Danna Hills’ Cassidy Spearman and Margo Pletcher, University’s Nassim Radmehr and Danielle Pham and Laguna Hills’ Mikey Barthelmas and Alex Valenstein in the next round of the tournament.
Barthelmas and Valenstein earned their place in the tournament after Dana Hills’ Jessica Perez and Taylor Nederlander were disqualified when the CIF ruled Nederlander ineligible.
Tesoro’s Mayci Jones leads a group of three Orange County players that are advancing on in the tournament.
“Each round, the competition just gets so much tougher,” Jones said. “It’s nerve-wracking.”
Play continues with the Round of 32 on Nov. 30 at Whittier Narrows Tennis Center in South El Monte. San Clemente’s Sophia Bott and St. Margaret’s Zoe Oedekerk also advanced out of the Corona del Mar sectional.
