No sweat for Johnston & Koff

COSTA MESA — In a finesse sport like tennis, sweaty palms often lead to errant shots.

The girls from the Costa Mesa and Estancia high school tennis teams said they were feeling the pressure on Thursday at Costa Mesa High, in the Orange Coast League opener for both schools.

Estancia (7-2, 1-0 in league) was dominant in singles and Costa Mesa (1-2, 0-1) was dominant in doubles, but sweaty palms went for naught for the Eagles’ No. 1 doubles team of Abby Koff and Jennifer Johnston.

Their two wins were the difference in an 11-7 Estancia win.

“With the exception of their No. 1 singles player [graduate Evelyn Wallace] for the past four years, they’d always put stronger players in doubles,” Estancia Coach Rachel de los Santos said. “I knew we would dominate in singles, so I was hoping we could get one or two [sets] in doubles to win the match.”

Koff and Johnston lost, 6-4, to Costa Mesa’s No. 1 doubles team of Jasmine Mathieson and Alex Garcia, but rallied to take their next two matches.

“The second two teams had harder shots, so we hit hard shots back,” said Koff, a junior. “But the first team we played was dinking and we couldn’t really adjust.”

Those were the only two matches won by an Estancia doubles team, but they were enough thanks to a dominating singles effort by Eagles Ellie Edles, Kendra Fisher and Sarah Stratton.

The trio swept their nine combined sets.

“Our first match, we were kind of nervous because it was crosstown rivals,” Koff said. “We played really bad. But, we realized that the rest of our doubles teams were losing, so we needed to step up. It’s kind of like our job, since we’re No. 1 doubles.”

Costa Mesa’s doubles teams also excelled. Mathieson and Garcia, both seniors, swept its three sets, and the teams of Linh Hoang and Sandra Im, and Lindsay Levanas and Cori Patelski, won two of three sets.

Mustangs Coach Sean Lance said he stacks the doubles side out of necessity, due to an overall lack of experience. He said most of the doubles players are actually converted singles players.

“I have players who have only played a year or two, and they’re starters right now,” Lance said. “Getting them out there and actually teaching them how to serve and hit, we had to spend a lot of time on that. But, based on the matches that we’ve played, we’re doing a lot better hitting-wise.”

Starting the league off with a big match against a crosstown rival, de los Santos could tell her team was nervous.

The Eagles plan to challenge for the No. 2 spot in the Orange Coast League behind Laguna Beach, which would give them a CIF Southern Section Division I playoff spot.

“I would have rather not opened against [Costa Mesa], because the girls get so nervous,” she said. “But I guess it’s nice to get it over with, and we play them two more times. Now we know that we have two tough matches ahead of us.”

Estancia’s Johnston said she thought the league was tougher than the Golden West League, where the Eagles formerly played.

However, that may not be a bad thing for Estancia, she added.

“It’s good practice,” Johnston said. “You can’t really learn anything if you’re playing easy teams. If you play harder teams, you learn more and play better.”

Lance said Costa Mesa did have a chance to win on Thursday, but the rivalry factor proved too much to overcome.

“The key today was the pressure,” Lance said. “They felt too much pressure today.”

Orange Coast League

Estancia 11, Costa Mesa 7

Singles -- Edles (E) def. Courtney (CM), 6-2; def. Le, 6-0, def. Saculles, 6-0; Fisher (E) won, 7-5, 6-0, 6-1; Stratton (E) won, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles -- Koff-Johnston (E) lost to Mathieson-Garcia (CM), 6-4, def. Hoang-Im, 6-0, def. Levanas-Patelski, 6-2; (sub) O’Toole-Corona (E) lost, 3-6, O’Toole-Rodman lost, 3-6, 3-6; Kawano-Ramdath-Maharaj (E) lost, 1-6, (sub) Kawano-Plascencia (E) lost, 4-6, Kawano-Ramdath-Maharaj lost, 1-6.