Rancho Santa Margarita, CA — JSerra girls handed SM their first Trinity League loss today picking up 12 sets while dropping only 6. Doubles picked up 7 sets with singles adding the additional 5.

Dana Point, CA — The Lady Lions traveled to Dana Hills, a heralded CIF powerhouse. Last years meeting was the first ever between these two programs, in which JSerra escaped with a narrow victory 10 - 8.

claremont, CA — In true team style, our “underdog” JSerra girls took 6 doubles sets and 4 singles sets to defeat the top seeded Knights of Foothill (Tustin) to become the first ever CIF Tennis Champions in our school’s history, boys or girls.

Fullerton, CA — Short four starters, the Lions traveled up to Fullerton Tennis Center for their 2nd league match of the year and cam home victorious.

Lake Forest, CA — The Chargers had a short today, literally. Only 8 girls were able to play for El Toro today, so, the Lions started the match with a 3 - 0 lead, but, picked up an additional default later, when one of the 8 retired. Our doubles teams carried the Lions to victory, winning 7 of 9 sets. Anna and Aerin did not drop a single game today, while Sophia M. with Kylie swept all 3 allowing only 2 games. Pretty stingy! SophiaG. with Julia picked up the 7th doubles set vs the Chargers line 2 team, 6 - 2, which, coupled with the 4 defaults gave us the 11 - 7 non league victory.

San Juan Capistrano, CA — JSerra captures the mythical San Juan Capistrano City Championship with a 9 to 9, 76 to 69 game count nail-biter at San Juan Hills. This was the case the year before covid as well. When the tied sets occur, every single game in a set won OR LOST counts in the tally, so every player that lost 1-6, 2-6, 3-6 etc. is a huge contributor to this effort. For this reason, KOach Kirk hesitates at giving MVP’s out, but simply can’t ignore the extra effort these players gave today. So, winning two sets were Gabbi and Elise in singles, then Sophia M with Kylie and Anna with Aerin.

Aliso Viejo, CA — Wolverines are tough animals and the Aliso Niguel girls are tougher. Perennial powerhouse in the South Coast, Aliso took us to the woodshed today with a 12 - 6 solid victory. Their coach liberally subbed after round one and also defaulted a couple of matches that they really won in the last round, (KOach allowed them to sub illegally to form a couple of better matchups in the last round). Their league allows for subs to go out and come back in, but, not play out of rotation or switch from singles to doubles or visa versa. The total game count was 93 for Aliso to 41 for the Lions...

San Juan Capistrano, CA — Just before Covid interrupted sports and tennis, Huntington Beach had one of the top 4 teams in So Cal, so we knew we would have our hands full this afternoon.

Garden Grove, CA — Led by Senior Varsity team members, MVP Meghan Reiner (2 of 2 sets won today) and MVP Virginia Egan (3 of 3 sets won today) JSerra traveled to Garden Grove to do battle with the Santiago Cavaliers.

Mission Viejo, CA — We traveled across the freeway to play Capo Valley today and were dealt a bad hand. The Lions fielded 7th period PE girls in round 1, which included 4 only starters, allowing the others to remain in class. After a slow 2 - 4 start, the final two rounds were split 3-3 for an 8 - 10 loss.

Dana Point, CA — Dana Hills has politely refused our offers to play them for 14 years. A former student of mine, is now the head coach and agreed to compete..and we are glad he did.. not because we won, but, because we prefer to play schools closer to home in order to get students back home to their studies. "KOach Kirk says, "We try to avoid traipsing around the OC when it isn't necessary. Our league matches are far enough for me. Some of these girls train together and it is fun to see them compete against their fellow clinic friends."

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA — JSerra traveled to SM for their 2nd Trinity League match of the year and lost a tight match 8 - 10. Kaley Houshmand picked up our lone singles point in round 3, and we had a valiant effort by Olivia McHenry in a round 1 loss. Liv fought for over an hour, but came up short 5-7; most of the other 2nd round matches were almost finished at this point. Kaley's match vs SM's line 2 player was a great effort, best tennis of the day from a purist outlook. Her match vs SM's freshman, phenom, in round 1 was just too tough. Coach Kirk believes this athlete will most likely be the Trinity singles champion this year, [if Newsom let's us have a tournament]. Delara Gitibin and Juliana Calo both got 'fed to the lions' as they were subbed in vs the Eagles top 2 players in round 3. They did their best and had fun, which is all we ask. Olivia Morris was awesome today picking up games in a 3-6 loss at line 2 singles. This opponent is a very seasoned, formidable player. Olivia played hard til the last point!

Westminster, CA — Taking advantage of a facility with 10 courts, we played both Varsity teams - boys and girls - at the time and location. The slightly abbreviated match of 2x2 singles with the regular 3x3 doubles resulted in a total of 13 sets, all of which were won by JSerra.

Costa Mesa, CA — The girls varsity [minus 3 of our top 6 girls] had no problem reining in the Costa Mesa Mustangs today in their home corral, 18 to zero! Coach pulled up 3 JV players for this venture. Delara Gitibin, Rosalia Ripullo and Ava Serentelos..along with freshman singles player Victoria Oh and last years Trinity League Singles Champion, Anna Ciraci, freshman Olivia Morris doubles and senior Juliana Calo all won their 1st , 2nd and 3rd set varsity victories. "Act Like You've Been There" ['cuz they have!] senior Olivia McHenry and sophomore Elise Early both added 3 sets to varsity victories from the past. Not only did these ladies win all eighteen sets, they only gave up 2 games in 18 sets [all sets but two were 6-0]! This brings us to .500 season and we take the show on the road tomorrow vs Newport, a VERY formidable foe! Go Lions!

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"