Dana Hills duo knocked out in CIF semifinals

SEAL BEACH – The high school tennis season was always going to end Friday at the Seal Beach Tennis Center. It just happened in a way that Dana Hills junior Cassidy Spearman and sophomore Margo Pletcher didn't want.

The Dolphins' doubles team – the last Orange County competitors in the CIF-SS Individual Tennis Championships – fell 6-2, 6-3 to the two-time defending champs from Campbell Hall in the semifinals.

Despite ending the season with a loss, Pletcher said she thinks she'll soon appreciate the deep run in the tournament.

"It's hard in the beginning because we really wanted to win," she said. "But you realize they're a good team, and we played a good match."

After coming out flat and losing the first set, Spearman and Pletcher were tied 3-3 with Campbell Hall's Valerie Thoung and Zoe Katz in the second set. Dana Hills had two chances to break Campbell Hall's serve and win a crucial game, but the Dolphins failed to win the next four points.

After that, Thoung and Katz stepped on the gas and pulled away.

"That was a game-changer," Spearman said. "If we would have focused on closing on the shots we had then, it could have changed the whole match around. I think we would have kept going and kept them on their toes.

"We didn't, and they took advantage of it."

The Dolphins inability to convert on that opportunity ultimately sealed their fate.

"You're going to have to break them once," Dana Hills head coach Justin Green said. "There might not be a better time to do than at three all."

Dana Hills, the CIF-SS Division 1 team champions, failed to grab the school's first individual hardware since 2007.

"It was a good match, and they (Spearman and Pletcher) just ran into a very good team," Green said. "I thought they played well, but it just wasn't their day."