Last week, the Islanders, along with all of the Western League teams in the San Diego Section, played in the Western League Individual Tournament—a post-CIF tournament where individual players and doubles teams compete for the title of Western League Player/Doubles Team of the Year. This year, Coronado had finalists in both the singles and doubles draws of the tournament. Ellie Johnson/Samantha Russell lost 0-6, 2-6 against a team from La Jolla High School, while in the singles draw, Summer Vu lost to the No. 1 seed of the tournament—Jolie Morgan from OLP—0-6, 5-7.
In order to qualify for the CIF Individual Tournament, all players in the San Diego Section must have made it past the quarter-finals of their league tournament. Since Coronado had three players—Summer Vu, Elsa Östermarker, and Lily Vu—in the semi-finals, all of them were guaranteed entry to CIF Individuals.
All four of the doubles teams reached the quarter-finals of the Western League tournament, but only two made it to the semi-finals—Johnson/Russell and Alejandra Gonzalez/Marla Steel, who fell to the championship team from La Jolla (No. 4 seed) in a close match (3-6, 7-6, 7-10). Gonzalez/Steel were among the #5-8 seeds of the CIF Individual Tournament and will feed into the third round, due to their high seeding. Johnson/Russell were also seeded among the top sixteen teams and will be feeding into the third round, as well. Other doubles entrants were Olivia Strong/Sinaia Haskal and Jolee Barr/Tiana French, who lost in the quarterfinals of the Western League tournament.
“There are several goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of each season, and one of them is to qualify as many players as possible into the CIF tournament,” shares Coach Rob Moore. “While some teams only qualify a player or two, I’m very proud of the fact the Islanders qualified more than a standard high school team, which is usually three singles players and three doubles teams; we have three singles players and four doubles teams representing our school. This is an impressive accomplishment; every high school tennis player considers it the ultimate honor to be selected to play in the CIF. I couldn’t be more proud of my entire team.”
Click here for the draw of the CIF Individual Tournament for the San Diego Section.
