Newport Harbor falls to Northwood in playoffs again

For the second straight year, the Newport Harbor High girls’ tennis team had to play Northwood to begin the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

Last year, it was Northwood earning a 14-4 win at home in a wild-card match. On Wednesday, the Timberwolves had to travel to the Sailors’ courts for a first-round match, but it could have been worse.

“It saves us a trip to someplace beyond the Mississippi River or something,” Northwood coach John Tichy said with a smile. “We had to play the regionals two years ago up in Fresno. It’s nice to play local teams. We don’t play them in the regular season, so meeting them in the playoffs is always fun. [Newport Harbor coach] Kristen [Case] and I have known each other for years, so it’s all friendly fire out here.”

The battle went to the Timberwolves, who ended the Sailors’ season yet again. This time the score was closer, but Northwood moved on after an 11-7 victory.

Northwood (11-7) will play host to No. 4-seeded Arcadia in the second round Friday. Arcadia was an 18-0 winner over Camarillo in another first-round match.

Shweta Kumar, Astriti Dihingia and Shreya Hugalavalli all won two singles sets for the Timberwolves, who advanced despite a singles sweep from Newport Harbor senior Nicole Knickerbocker, the Sunset League singles champion. Knickerbocker improved to 58-3 this season after beating Kumar 6-4, Dihingia 6-0 and Hugalavalli 6-1.

But the overall depth of the Timberwolves, who tied for third place in the Pacific Coast League and earned an at-large berth into the playoffs, won out. The tough league includes Corona del Mar, the top seed in Division 1, University, ranked No. 6 in the final Division 1 poll, and Beckman, the top seed in Division 2.

“We knew we’d have to face a league champion as an at-large team,” Tichy said, “[but] the Pacific Coast League prepares you for anything. It just does. It prepares you for all matches.”

The Sunset League champion Sailors (16-3) could have had a 4-2 advantage after the first round. There were three close doubles sets, and two went the way of Northwood.

Northwood’s Deepika Reddy and Michelle Kroll earned a 6-4 win over Newport Harbor’s Amra Barton and Lauren Lipkowski at No. 1 doubles, and then Ashley Le and Rachel Youngblade beat the Sailors’ Riley DeCinces and Sterling Solomon by the same score at No. 3 doubles.

Newport Harbor’s Rachel Davis and Avery Wooden won at No. 2 doubles, beating Frances Knoll and Megan Mansonhing in a tiebreaker, but Northwood had a 4-2 lead.

“I’m really proud of our team and how we competed today,” Case said. “I thought the quality of today’s match was very high. At the end of the day, that’s all we can ask for, that we come out and compete our hardest, we play high-quality tennis, and we don’t give up. We did all three of those things, so I’m very proud of how our team finished today.”

The Timberwolves won five of six sets in the second round for a 9-3 advantage. After the match was clinched, Newport Harbor’s doubles teams then swept in the third round, against three Northwood substitute teams.

Case said the future of the program is bright, as the Sailors started seven sophomores on Wednesday. As for Knickerbocker, she’ll continue her season at the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament, which begins on Nov. 20.

“The growth that this team has had over a year’s time is just incredible,” Case said. “We had phenomenal leadership this year from our captains [Knickerbocker, junior Kat Smith and Barton], and everybody on this team served a really strong role throughout the entire season. The teamwork and commitment to one another from this group was some of the highest quality our program has had.”

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