CdM tandem tough

SEAL BEACH — After playing so solidly for two rounds at the Seal Beach Tennis Center, top-seeded Corona del Mar High seniors Melissa Matsuoka and Hailey Hogan moved even closer to a CIF Individuals doubles title Thursday.

Flaws were hard to find. The only noticeable one came in the tournament draw itself, where Hogan’s first name was misspelled. There’s no “I” in team, and there wasn’t any “I” in her name either as “Haley” appeared as a typo.

“Oh my goodness,” Hogan said, not really too angry with a smile on her face. “They need to switch that.”

But as for the tennis, Matsuoka and Hogan are two wins away from the title. They topped B.J. McCrary and Taylor LeFridge from Santiago of Corona, 6-0, 6-2, in the Round of 16. Then, they got past Haley Perrotte and Jordan Eggleston of Palm Desert, 6-1, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.

Matsuoka and Hogan will face the sister tandem of Della and Ella Taylor, from Redondo Union, in a semifinal today at 11 a.m. Should they win, they’d face either Pacific Coast League foes Kyra Scott and Hayley Thompson of University, or Valerie Thong and Zoe Katz of Campbell Hall of Valley Village.

The semis are a familiar place to the CdM duo; Matsuoka and Hogan lost in that round two years ago. This time around, they appear much more ready to win.

“They’re seniors,” CdM Coach Brian Ricker said. “They’re playing a little smarter and they have more tools. What they do naturally complements each other. They set each other up. Hailey’s gotten so good at the net, and Melissa’s ground strokes are so strong.”

They appeared to cruise through Thursday, but they said they beat two solid teams. Even their first match against Santiago, Hogan and Matsuoka both struggled to hold serve in the first set. A break of serve, and their opponents might have the advantage, but the Dartmouth-bound Matsuoka came up with some big serves out wide and Hogan also held steady.

Hogan, who is bound for Johns Hopkins, serve-and-volleyed during her service games. That gave opponents two Sea Kings at the net to have to worry about.

“That’s how we’ve practiced,” Hogan said. “I think it works ... We’re starting to figure it out now, I think. When Melissa serves big it’s so easy to poach. And I think if I can get my first serve in, it’s easy for her, too.”

Ricker pointed to Matsuoka’s powerful ground strokes, but her ability to change pace is also key. Back in eighth grade, she used high-arching “moon ball” shots, but the change of pace now is definitely more subtle.

“Because she can do both, it’s so difficult on opponents,” Ricker said. “She can bring the heat in a big way and she can outhit some big hitters, but I think when she’s mixing it up is when she’s at her best.”

No Corona del Mar girls’ individual or team has advanced past the semifinals since the Sea Kings’ Taylynn Snyder and Brittany Holland won the doubles title in 2002. In Ricker’s six-year tenure, he’s had four doubles teams reach the semifinal round and fall there.

“This next round is going to be tough, as we know at CdM,” he said. “The semis have not been friendly to us.”

But Matsouka said neither that fact, nor the fact that she and Hogan are the top-seeded team, creates any pressure for the two-time Pacific Coast League doubles champions.

“We just try to play our best and see what happens,” Matsuoka said. “All we can do is just go out there and try our best, play hard ... We’ll just stick to our game plan. Every match is going to be tough.”