Recap
Los Alamitos, CA — The Lions traveled today to Los Alamitos HS to play the Griffins, not knowing exactly what to expect, except, their #1 singles player is very strong. Having scouted a little bit Monday, Los Al @ Sage [thanks to their late start and our quick win], Coach Kirk knew a couple of things: Their #1 is very strong, #3 doubles was weak, #3 singles is really 2nd best player on the team and their best doubles player poaches by 2nd shot on virtually every point. So, we went with that info at practice Tuesday. "It's always nice to open up round one with a 5 - 1 can of whoop whatever. Taking out the queen bee at the beginning helps too, which Katy Golbranson and Claire Delaney accomplished at line 1 doubles. The other doubles teams followed suit with hard fought victories. Alexa Taba with Lily Sheybani and Elise Early with Sophia Moncur. Jenna Lee and Kaley Houshmand took care of their line 2 and 3 singles foes respectively, Taylor fought hard in a first round loss, but rebounded quickly for 6-0, 6-1 victories in the latter 2 rounds. Kaley picked up another win vs line 2, while Jenna pulled the hat trick, defeating the #1 player 6-1 in the final round. Having captured the 9th set prior to the start of round 3, coach was able to get subs Olivia McHenry and Hailey Moncur in to the match. HAiley was matched with her BFF, Katy which was fun for all! Olivia teamed up with Lily, Alexa was kind enough to bow out, which was tough because her Dad and sister were there. BUT, Olivia and Lily won a spectacular tiebreaker 9-7 for the 13th set!... as daylight had severely waned!
But wait!!! There's more! We had an incognito at the San Juan/South Torrance match [at San Juan] who notified us that San Juan was up 7-5 after round 2, so, we were expecting a rematch with the Stallions! However, they dropped 4 of the final 6 sets and came up short on game count 70 to 78, allowing South Torrance to advance to the quarter finals vs JSerra on Monday AT JSERRA !!!
The S. Torrance AD has asked if we would agree to start a little earlier, we have agreed on 1pm, but, it still needs to be approved by our AD and we will let you know tomorrow.
"This match will be a barn-burner, full on heavy weight, blow by blow, but, we are looking forward to it." says Coach Kirk. ""Knowing that we had already won the coin flip to host Monday was a great 'picker-upper' for our spirits today!"
EVERY varsity team member is encouraged to dress out Monday [white over crimson] and be in the lineup at beginning. "I know it's a day off, but, if you are available, that would be awesome!
Go Lions!