With a 12-6 defeat of Valley Center, the Coronado High School Girls Tennis Team advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division III CIF San Diego Section Championships, and then narrowly lost to eventual champion and Eastern League nemesis Clairemont High School (9-9; 80-77).
The team finished the season with a 6-11 record. Impressively, they managed the six wins with less than a handful of players who returned from the 2023 squad. The returning players began the season by recruiting athletes from other sports: eight lacrosse players, one softball player, and a soccer player who were all new to tennis joined the team.
Versus Clairemont
As in their Oct. 17 match up, the Islanders tied the number of sets won against Clairemont in the quarterfinals, at 9-9. Once a match ends in a tie, the first tiebreaker is the number of games won across all 18 sets. On Oct. 17, Coronado lost by 2 games, 78-76. On Oct 30, they lost by 3, 80-77.
To provide a sense for how rare a 9-9 tie is, across the 36 matches that Clairemont and Coronado played during the 2024 season, only two ended in a tie: the Oct. 30 and Oct. 17 competitions against each other.
Ever wondered about the scoring system for high school tennis? Each of the three singles players play one set each against the opponent’s singles players, and each of the three doubles teams play one set each against the opponent’s double teams. For example, the CHS #1 singles player plays a six-game set against the opponent’s #1, #2, and #3 players, for a total of three sets; the CHS #2 singles player does the same, and so on for all three singles players and three doubles teams. In all, the teams play nine sets of singles and nine sets of doubles. Each set won counts as one point.
In singles, Grace Elardo won two sets and Ella Peterson won one. In doubles, the duos of Lilah Cade and Logan Shapiro, Brynn Belong and Samantha Aldworth, and Casilida Sanchez and Josephine Zwierzynski all won two sets.
Clairemont went on to win the CIF Division III title by beating Valhalla in the semifinals, 10-8, and University City in the finals, 10-8. Coronado proved to be Clairemont’s toughest opponent.
Versus Valley Center
On Oct. 29, #5-seed Coronado won its first round of the Division III Team Tournament against Valley Center High School, 12-6. In doubles, the teams of Cade/Shapiro and Belong/Aldworth won all three sets they played. The doubles team of Sanchez/Zwierzynski won two doubles sets, while in singles, Elardo won two sets and Peterson and Rio Kramer each won one.
Notable
Grace Elardo finished the season with a 45-9 record across both doubles and singles. She was one of the few players who played multiple sets of both singles and doubles throughout the season. Logan Shapiro (38 -18), Lilah Cade (34-19), Brynn Belong (30-21), and Samantha Aldworth (29-18) all had strong showings in doubles.
Elardo and Shapiro were selected as First Team All-League. On Nov. 5, the pair lost in the first round of the CIF San Diego Section Individual Tournament to sisters Riley and Anna Panter of La Costa Canyon High School, 6-2, 6-3.
Giving Back: More Than Just a Tennis Team
The CHS Tennis Team demonstrated their commitment to community service by assembling 300 toiletry bags for individuals experiencing homelessness. Everyone on the team participated, providing them an additional opportunity to not only give back, but to bond.
Given the number of players who were new to tennis this year, if they can get them back and on the court, the team will be well positioned for a great season next fall.
