Bishop Diego’s Sam Kenney earned a spot in next month’s CIF-SS singles tournament with an upset 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Villanova’s Annalise Farwell Thursday in the Frontier League Individual tournament.
Kenney was seeded No. 4 in the tournament and Farwell No. 2.
After the bagel loss in the first set, “Sam started working on her breathing and really trying to slow down a bit,” Bishop Diego coach Pete Kirkwood said. “She won the first game of the second set which ended Farwell’s 12 game winning streak against her. Sam won the second game and at 2-0 in the second set, some belief began to pop into her head.”
After pulling out she second set, she gutted out the final set.
Luckily, as I was getting sweaty palms, Sam was able to stay composed throughout the third set,” Kirkwood said. “I’ll tell you Sam won that set 7-5 because she simply wanted it more. At 4-3 up, I could sense she was not going to let this slip away.”
“… It was a great moment for Sam. I don’t believe we have had a player on the girls side go to CIF for awhile.”
The Cardinals find out about the team CIF playoffs on Monday.