Corona del Mar crowned as CIF Divison 1 champion after beating rival

Reporting from claremont —  Annika Bassey, Paulina Loredo and Kristina Evloeva had never played on a high school tennis team prior to this season.

Bassey transferred to Corona del Mar High from Ojai, and fellow senior Loredo came from Texas. Evloeva, a junior, was a Newport Coast resident who enrolled at CdM just before the school year began.

The three standout players were treated as family once they got to the Sea Kings. Team bonding started early and was a priority, largely spearheaded by senior Danielle Willson, a four-year varsity starter in singles. CdM coach Jamie Gresh stressed to the team that though it might have the most talent, it would take good chemistry and teamwork to capture the program’s first CIF Southern Section Division 1 title since 2006.

That goal came to fruition Friday at the Claremont Club. The family decided to put a ring on it.

Top-seeded Corona del Mar capped an undefeated dual-match season, using a true team effort to beat Pacific Coast League rival University 13-5 for the title.

Every singles and doubles line won at least two sets for the Sea Kings (23-0), who have more than likely clinched the top seed for next weekend’s CIF State Southern California Regionals. But the CIF title was the big goal, and CdM delivered its ninth crown in program history.

“The commitment that the girls have had all season has been phenomenal,” said Gresh, moments after the girls dumped water on him and CdM assistant coach Nathaniel Gorham in celebration. “I think practices have been great. We’ve competed hard against each other all year for moments like this, when you have to play a Peninsula during the regular season, and Uni, and Arcadia in the semifinals.”

The unseeded Trojans (16-5) got to the Division 1 title match with upset wins over No. 3-seeded defending champion North Hollywood Campbell Hall in the quarterfinals and No. 2-seeded Palos Verdes Peninsula in the semifinals. They were missing their longtime head coach for Friday’s match; Gresh said that John Kessler was at a soccer showcase with his daughter in Arizona. But University, which had lost to the league champion Sea Kings by scores of 15-3 and 14-4 in league play, still gave CdM all it could handle in the first round on Friday.

The Trojans brought a sizable student cheering section, and they put pressure on the Sea Kings early. The teams were tied 3-3 after the round, the first time all season that CdM had not led at that point. The Trojans got a 6-4 win by sophomore Cami Brown over Willson at No. 1 singles, plus doubles victories by Mya Wang and Emily Markus, as well as Kayla Augustin and Theresa Garcia.

Augustin and Garcia’s victory was the last set of the round to finish, a 7-5 win over CdM senior Brooke Kenerson and freshman Lauren Friedman at No. 3 doubles.

“We didn’t see it coming,” Bassey said. “It was almost kind of shocking. I was kind of peeking through the fence, trying to see Danielle’s [score].”

But the Sea Kings responded like champions, winning five of six sets in the second round for an 8-4 advantage. That included a bounce-back set by Kenerson and Friedman, who beat University’s No. 1 team of Wang and Markus by a score of 6-2.

“It’s kind of funny,” Kenerson said. “You put [the lineup] out, one-two-three for us and one-two-three for Uni, and then you rotate and you don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s not a major difference between our one, our two and our three [doubles teams]. I thought it was pretty cool for Lauren and I to beat their No. 1 team. I was really stoked about that. Going into that match, I had that mind-set that it doesn’t matter the number.”

The number that mattered to CdM was 10, as the 10th set win would clinch the title. The Sea Kings did so with two quick wins in the third round. Juniors Bella McKinney and Roxy MacKenzie beat Augustin and Garcia 6-0 for the ninth set, then Willson topped University’s Dana Feng 6-1 for the 10th and clinching set.

It was perhaps fitting that Willson, the Sea Kings’ longest-tenured varsity player who is bound for USC, would clinch the title for her team.

“It’s really special for me to do that,” Willson said. “I mean, I wasn’t planning it at all, but it’s kind of cool. I’m glad that we were able to finish it off, even though it was 3-3 after the first round. I’m glad that we were able to pull it together and finish really strong.

“It takes everyone to have this happen. It’s a really special moment.”

University’s Brown swept Willson (6-4), Evloeva (6-4) and Bassey (6-3), an impressive feat. But the Sea Kings had seen it before. San Marino sophomore Anessa Lee did that in CdM’s quarterfinal win on Monday. The Sea Kings were just a stronger overall team than the Trojans, who fell to 0-5 in CIF title matches.

Willson, Evloeva and Bassey all won against the Trojans’ Nos. 2 and 3 singles players for CdM’s six total singles victories. The Sea Kings also won seven doubles sets. Loredo and Shaya Northrup had a strong day with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 sweep, while the teams of McKinney and MacKenzie, as well as Kenerson and Friedman, each won twice.

The CIF title was the first for Gresh, in his sixth year coaching at CdM overall and his third as head coach of the girls’ program. He called it special. This year ended a streak of the Sea Kings losing in the Division 1 semifinals for four straight seasons.

“We had a unique team, and I told the girls that at the beginning of the season,” Gresh said. “With the pieces of the puzzle that we had, and the depth that we had returning, I felt that this could be a special year. But that’s on paper, and then you have to prove it. These girls have done that throughout.”

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