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!

San Juan Capistrano, CA — Feels good to be back in the playoffs and hosting a match here on our own courts.

San Juan Capistrano, CA — The Lady Lions effectively and officially 'won league' today, mathematically eliminating any challengers with a 12 - 6 win over Rosary at home. Should they lose the next 2 matches, the head to head wins over SM would give them that tiebreaker. If Mater Dei upset SM and JSerra, the Lions could conceivably share co-championship with the Monarchs. A win over OLu at home next Tuesday would solve this puzzle for keeps; coupled with a win next Thursday, earns the outright sole championship!

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA — JSerra sweeps the home and away series with nemesis, Santa Margarita, for the first time in school history. Definitely a team effort! Someone trips and falls, they are picked up by teammates while others stepped up and capture a set. Even on an individual basis, Kaley Houshmand dropping a hard fought tiebreaker set at line 3 singles, comes back and gets 4 games vs line 2 player in the last match of the day, as all players and parents watch this Lion take the match on her shoulders past the finish line!. Jenna Lee defeats her former team three straight sets as did Taylor Barnes. Claire Delaney with Katy Golbranson upset SM's undefeated line 1 doubles team, 9-7 tiebreaker win. They were down 3 match points in the breaker! Then, freshmen Gabby Basa and Sophia Moncur come from behind 1-4, for a 6-4 victory over SM's line 3 doubles. Thank you coach Keith for helping with this comeback in particular. Thank you Coach Wilson for taking over JV matches, allowing Keith to travel with the varsity squad, it is a big help to have 2 coaches at the tight matches! AND a HUGE shout out to our athletic director, Chris Ledyard, who ventured up to SM and watched the ENTIRE match from start to finish...Coach Kirk notes, "I think Chris is becoming a legitimate 'tennis parent' ! He may have gain a few gray hairs today!" :) Anyone that spends this amount of time at a tennis match, with our scoring system can tell you that it really is a game of inches AND every game counts! Alexa Taba with Lily Sheybani, who came from behind in the last set played in the first SM contest, to win the match for us, did not capture a set this time. However, they added precious games to our 78 game tally! EVERY PLAYER today is a MVP!

San Juan Capistrano, CA — Our first Trinity League bye [odd number of teams] came at a good time, following our big win over SM. The South Coast and Sea View have two 5-team leagues and we schedule teams that have the same bye week as us from these leagues [except for Dana Hills, who won't play us]. This year, El Toro was that team and the Lions took them to the mat, running up a 6-0 round one lead then a 11 - 1 lead after completion of round two. Coach Kirk subbed in 7 players in the final round and picked up a couple more sets for the win.

Aliso Viejo, CA — The varsity girls traveled to Aliso Niguel and played a very tight 7 - 11 loss. Our singles managed 3 sets while doubles squeaked out 4. The Lions were serving for sets in 2 first round matches that they failed to capture... which made the difference. Lily Sheybani and Alexa Taba won 2 of their 3 sets. Jena Lee had a long 1st round loss at #2 spot, 5-7. This team killed us last year, so we are making progress...Can't wait for the rematch next year in our house! Olivia McHenry with Katie Takahashi took one set, which is important, as her Mom is one of the coaches. This duo also went 4-6 vs Aliso's #1 dbls team.. "Good outing overall" says Coach O. "we were missing our #5 girl and still haven't been at full strength"