Grace Fuss of Cate beat two nationally ranked players en route to a sweep of her singles sets, but the Rams came up short against Calabasas, 10-8, in a CIF-SS Division 1 first-round girls tennis playoff match on Wednesday
The Rams were all even with the Coyotes at 6-6 after two rounds. Calabasas won four sets in the final round to hand Cate its first loss.
Fuss, who defeated her three opponents 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, with two wins coming against nationally ranked Lauren Sebastian and Ellina Ivanova.
Carol Cai and Mia Foster combined to make a senior pairing at No. 3 doubles and came out red-hot with a 6-2 win. Sophomores Julianna Forry and Maesa Vongkusolkit continued their winning ways, following up a 17-3 Tri-Valley League record with a 6-3 victory over the Calabasas No.2 team.
Junior Fritze Mayer and sophomore Ashi Kamra anchored the doubles lineup. The pair had a 3-2 lead against the Calabasas No. 1 team, but ended up falling 4-6 in a very competitive match.
Mayer and Kamra rallied to take a 10-8 tie-break win in the second round to keep the team afloat, while Cai and Foster cruised to a 6-1 victory against the No.2 team. Forry and Vongkusolkit stayed close with the Calabasas top team throughout their second-round match, but the experienced Calabasas team broke serve and held to finish the set with a 6-3 win.
In the third round of play, Cate got quick wins from Fuss and Mayer/Kamra, but could not add to the win-tally, dropping the remaining sets to come just shy of victory.
“When you look at the players that had an impact on this match, you’ve obviously got to love what the seniors brought to the table, with Grace rolling her three opponents and Carol and Mia taking two solid wins in their first match together this season,” said Cate coach Trevor Thorpe.
“To sum it up, the score says we lost today, but to me this match was still an expression of the growth of this team from beginning of season to end.” Thorpe added. “None of these girls are the same players they were two and a half months ago. Meanwhile, the constant across a number of seasons now at Cate is that even when we face schools with many multiples our student population, we rise to the occasion and make it a battle. We can take pride in our performance today and that’s what matters the most.”