Estancia’s shuffle doesn’t matter

LAGUNA BEACH — Hunter Golden heard a “pop,” and before he knew it the Estancia High senior was on the ground.

Golden dislocated his right knee during the Eagles’ showdown at Laguna Beach on Tuesday, but he’d done that twice before playing hockey, he told his teammates. Golden simply popped the knee back into place and iced it down.

The Eagles as a whole, however, were not quite as resilient. Laguna Beach won the match, 11-7, taking the driver’s seat in the race for the Orange Coast League championship.

If the Breakers (8-5, 5-0 in league) don’t slip up against Calvary Chapel or Costa Mesa the rest of the way, they’ll wrestle away the league crown that Estancia took last year. And Laguna Beach has already beaten Calvary, 16-2, and Costa Mesa, 18-0.

Estancia Coach Rachel de los Santos knew Tuesday’s match would likely decide the league title. That’s why she made some changes to the lineup for Estancia (9-4, 4-2), which had lost to Laguna Beach by an identical 11-7 score on April 3. This time, she moved junior Danny O’Neil from singles to doubles, an attempt to keep Laguna from sweeping doubles as it did the first time around.

O’Neil and senior Nick Oliver won their first match in a tiebreaker, and the No. 1 doubles team of senior Chris Koreerat and junior Rony Argueta also won a match. But something else happened that hadn’t before. Junior Ely Zaidler, who had swept in singles when the teams previously played, lost his first match to Breakers freshman Benito Romeo, 6-4.

“That kind of threw a wrench into the plan,” de los Santos said. “And I put Danny into doubles maybe counting on a second win from that doubles team. But going from singles to doubles is tough. They’d never played together before, and he hasn’t played doubles all season long. It didn’t work out quite as planned. They got one win, which was exactly what Danny got last time in singles.”

Senior Bradley Fisher, the defending singles league champion, again swept Tuesday for Estancia, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Division IV coaches’ poll. But, as has been a problem for Estancia this year against good teams, it was hard to count on enough wins to get to the coveted 10-set mark that clinches a match.

“I told the guys [Monday] when I made all these changes, it’s a team sport,” de los Santos said. “We need things to happen across the board from the whole team. We can’t rely on one or two players, like we’ve been doing all year.”

Orange Coast League

Laguna Beach 11, Estancia 7

Singles – Thomas (E) lost to Michaels, 1-6, lost to Romeo, 2-6, lost to (sub) Gromet (LB), 4-6; Zaidler (E) won, 6-1, lost, 4-6, def. Miller (LB), 6-0; Fisher (E) won, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles – Argueta-Koreerat (E) lost to Berkson-Ochwat, 3-6, lost to Michelon-Unterberger, 1-6, def. Solomon-Rubel, 6-3; (sub) Varma-Ulrich lost, 2-6, Varma-Golden lost, 0-6, 0-6 (default); O’Neil-Oliver (E) lost, 1-6, 0-6, won, 7-6 (8-6).