Sunset’s best:

ANAHEIM — With one round to go, someone asked how Newport Harbor High could lose Tuesday.

An Esperanza player said, “win five of the next six sets.”

She then giggled.

She knew the Sailors had this battle between two undefeated Sunset League girls’ tennis teams wrapped up.

Newport Harbor won on the road, 11-7, and remained undefeated in league play.

The Sailors (11-3, 4-0 in league) are on a roll. They’ve won six straight matches. Only once during the streak has it come down to the wire.

Last week, Newport Harbor beat defending league champ Los Alamitos after a 9-9 match went to games.

Nothing has gotten in the way of the Sailors.

Singles player Liz Cramer didn’t even miss action after getting in a car accident before the showdown with the Griffins.

“We weren’t even 100% going into the match,” said Newport Harbor Coach Kristen Case, referring to Cramer, who cut her left hand in the accident. “It was really tough [for Cramer] to hold on [to the racquet]. She played, she toughed it out.

“I don’t think it was our best tennis day, but it just [showed] how tough our team is. Even when we are playing not at our top level, we still find a way to win.”

Against Esperanza (7-3, 3-1), the Sailors turned it on after playing even in the first round.

The next two belonged to the Sailors. They claimed eight of the next 12 sets to win.

One of the winners was Newport Harbor’s No. 3 doubles team of Alex Aiello and Riley Mathies. The duo picked up a 6-1 victory against Esperanza’s No. 1 team of Jessie Wackerman and Bionca Quesada.

It proved to be big. So was the 6-4 victory against the Aztecs’ No. 3 team.

“It was the difference of two sets,” Esperanza Coach Rey Lejano said.

Lejano wasn’t around last year when these two teams met. He was a lower-level coach.

Case said when Newport Harbor played Esperanza for the first time back then it entered the match with a league loss.

It almost happened again this year until the Sailors pulled out the victory against Los Alamitos.

“That really boosted our confidence,” Case said of defeating Los Alamitos.

“This is better than where we were last year.”

Case would know. This is her second year as head coach.

She has her team competing at a high level and it might result in the program’s first Sunset League title since joining the league in 2006.

Those 6 a.m. practices and three-hour workouts are paying off.

Just ask standout singles player Nelly Radeva and No. 1 doubles players Natalie Small and Jeanne Frei.

Radeva, who’s bound for UC Berkeley, made it look easy against the Aztecs. She swept her games.

“This is huge,” said Radeva, a senior.

The way Small and Frei battled back was as well.

The two started off slowly, falling behind, 3-0, before losing the opening set, 6-3.

Small and Frei gathered themselves in the next two sets, winning each one, 6-3.

“We didn’t give up,” Frei said. “We just fired it up a little more.”

She and the rest of the Sailors will have to do it again today.

Newport Harbor closes the first league go-around at Edison at 3 p.m.

“We’re going to have a lot of home matches that second round [in league],” Case said. “We’re definitely not going to get overconfident because these teams are obviously very solid.

“We have to come out and compete just as hard, if not harder.”

Sunset League

Newport Harbor 11, Esperanza 7

Singles – Arnold (NH) lost to Modoc, 0-6, lost to Abella, 3-6, def. Barron, 6-1; Radeva (NH) won, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0; Cramer (NH), lost, 2-6, 2-6, won, 6-1.

Doubles – Small-Frei (NH) lost to Wackerman-Quesada, 3-6, def. Doan-Do, 6-3, def. Nielsen-Reim, 6-3; Conway-Waterman (NH) won, 6-4, lost, 2-6, won, 6-4; Aiello-Mathies (NH), won, 6-1, lost, 2-6, won, 6-4.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].