CdM streak snapped

CORONA DEL MAR — Coach Brian Ricker, as well as several of the Corona del Mar High girls’ tennis parents, wore CIF Southern Section Division I championship T-shirts on Tuesday afternoon.

The fashion statement wasn’t by accident. The Sea Kings were playing host to Troy, the same team that CdM beat, 13-5, to win that Division I title last fall and cap an undefeated season.

“You’ve got to rub it in a little bit, which is fun,” Ricker said.

But for the Warriors, the nonleague rematch Tuesday was a chance to show how much things had changed.

Troy used strong singles play to outlast the Sea Kings, 10-8, at CdM. In the process, the Warriors snapped CdM’s 35 match win streak, including tournaments, which dated back to the start of the 2006 season.

Corona del Mar (3-1) team captains Lindsay Zotovich and Karen Ishii, both juniors, were two of the bright spots. They swept at No. 1 doubles and haven’t been beaten so far this season.

But, Ishii said, they knew the rematch with Troy would be a challenge after CdM lost its No. 1 and 2 singles players (Jill Damion and Cierra Gaytan-Leach), and No. 1 doubles team (Hayley and Miranda Young), from a year ago.

“We were all freaking out,” Ishii said. “I think we all got really nervous, because we lost so many good players. We all had faith in ourselves, but we were way more nervous than last year. Last year, we just bulldozed through all our matches.”

Alison Ramos and Stefanie Villajuan were Troy’s bulldozers in the rematch. They breezed through their sets at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, to earn the Warriors (4-0) six points.

The sweep for Ramos, a USC-bound senior who advanced to last year’s CIF Individuals singles title match, may not have been surprising. But Ricker said Villajuan, a junior who was part of Troy’s No. 1 doubles team last season, has really stepped up her game lately.

“She made a gigantic improvement, and that really gave them the edge,” Ricker said. “Villajuan is kind of a wild card that makes it tough for us to compete with them in singles.”

Sophomores Melissa Matsuoka and Hailey Hogan each won a singles set for CdM, and Danielle Kaiden and Kelli Feeley won two sets at No. 2 doubles.

Kate Stimac and Azadeh Nazemi subbed in for an impressive 6-1 victory at No. 3 doubles.

Ricker said his team, which consists of no senior starters, may have been a bit tentative early on as Troy built a 5-1 lead after the first go-round.

“I thought we had quite a few nervous girls,” Ricker said. “That was a factor today. But there’s only one way to get through that, and that’s to play matches like this. I think we can learn from this and go forward.”

Zotovich said she agreed.

“It was really exciting to see how well our team did against Troy,” Zotovich said. “I definitely think we have a good opportunity to win CIF again this year.”

Troy Coach Donna Judd, in her 16th year coaching the Warriors, said it’s the first time she had ever topped the Sea Kings.

“We knew we had a better chance this year, but we respect this team a lot,” Judd said of playing CdM again. “They’re a good team and they’re very well-coached. We knew it could go either way, so we wanted to just come play good tennis and hopefully we’d pull it out.

“It’d be great if we see them again in the CIF finals.”

Nonleague

Troy 10, Corona del Mar 8

SINGLES – Matsuoka (CdM) lost to Ramos, 1-6, lost to Villajuan, 1-6, def. Tseng, 6-1; Hogan (CdM) lost, 3-6, 2-6, won, 6-0; Polizois (CdM) lost, 0-6, 1-6, 1-6.

DOUBLES – Ishii-Zotovich (CdM) def. Geiss-Kang, 6-1, def. Nadres-Hui, 6-2, def. Radde-Liao, 6-0; Kaiden-Feeley (CdM) won, 6-3, lost, 1-6, won, 6-4; (sub) Stimac-Nazemi (CdM) won, 6-1, Nguyen-Beyer (CdM) lost, 0-6, 1-6.