LOOMIS, Calif. – A Del Oro volley landed harmlessly into the net to lift sophomore Ava Dezham and freshman Nura Fananapazir for set and match point at No. 3 doubles, clinching a 5-4 win for St. Francis against Del Oro in the quarterfinal round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I girls' tennis championship Wednesday night.
The fifth-seeded Troubadours improve to 11-7 for the season, and advance to the section semifinal for the second straight year.
Wednesday's team victory featured six matches going to the deciding third set, including all three doubles. Furthermore, the two teams split the singles portion of the dual, 3-3, meaning the doubles determined the final outcome.
Dezham and Fananapazir ended up as the last match standing, with the SF rookie tandem claiming the first set, 6-4, before falling in the second, 6-2. The Troubie No. 1 doubles teams of Litzy Alengaden and Ava Ensberg, and Arden Garcia and Lena Mundhenk, had completed 6-4 third sets in each team's favor, meaning the team scoring remained knotted up at 4-4. Dezham and Fananapazir held a 5-4 lead with a 40-15 game advantage when Garcia/Mundhenk finished their win. However, the Golden Eagles' pairing of Jorja Veach and Aubrie Holtahaus fought up three straight break and match points to even the set at 5-5.
Fananapazir held serve to take a 6-5 lead, but the Troubies soon faced a 40-15 deficit in the next game, with a chance for DO to force a tiebreaker. Instead, St. Francis scored back-to-back points to bring the game to deuce. With the rules calling for no-ad games, the 40-all score also established set and match point for the Troubies. Dezham opted to receive the serve, and both she and Fananapazir outlasted their hosts en route to the final DO error.
St. Francis previously picked up singles wins from Maria McDougall (No. 1), Anna Dinh (No. 4) and Sophia Troppmann (No. 5). McDougall stormed back from a 6-4 loss in the first set against Ashley Rowland to snare consecutive 6-1 sets. Dinh and Troppmann had the two straight-set victories for the Troubies. Oddly, Dinh arguably faced the biggest challenge in her 6-2, 7-5 victory over Rylan Tucker. With school still in session at DO and her No. 4 closest to the pool, a throng of Golden Eagle students came over to the No. 4 court to provide Tucker with a sort of home-court advantage.
Troppmann enjoyed the most decisive SF victory of the day, dispatching fellow junior Sutton Carter by matching 6-3 scores.
Even the three Troubie singles losses added to the dramatics of the overall match. Alexandra Wallace took Avery Phillips to a tiebreaker in the first set, but DO's two-time All-Sierra Foothill League singles honoree rolled to victory in both the tiebreaker and the second set. Tatum Walbeck opened with a 6-4 win against Raina Banks at No. 3 singles before Banks took down the second and third. Finally Sarah Ramos-Lasso traded 6-2 sets with Emily Becker at No. 6, and even held a 4-3 lead in the third before Becker settled down for a 7-5 win in the rubber set.
St. Francis will now face another SFL foe, No. 1 seeded Granite Bay, which rolled to a 7-2 win over No. 8 McClatchy at Gold River Sports Club on Wednesday. The semifinal match takes place on Monday, tentatively at 2 p.m. (pending court availability). In the meantime, McDougall will represent her team and school at the SJS Individual Championships, held at Johnson Ranch in Roseville on Thursday and Friday.
SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION DIV. I QUARTERFINAL: ST. FRANCIS 5, DEL ORO 4
Del Oro High School (Loomis, Calif.)
SINGLES
1. Maria McDougall (SF) def. Ashley Rowland (DO), 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
2. Avery Phillips (DO) def. Alexandra Wallace (SF), 7-6 (7-1), 6-1
3. Raina Banks (DO) def. Tatum Walbeck (SF), 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
4. Anna Dinh (SF) def. Rylan Tucker (DO), 6-2, 7-5
5. Sophia Troppmann (SF) def. Sutton Carter (DO), 6-3, 6-3
6. Emily Becker (DO) def. Sarah Ramos-Lasso (SF), 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
DOUBLES
1. Morgan Laugenour/Elena Burke (DO) def. Litzy Alengaden/Ava Ensberg (SF), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
2. Arden Garcia/Lena Mundhenk (SF) def. Estela Vesga/Briana Poll (DO), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
3. Ava Dezham/Nura Fananapazir (SF) def. Jorja Veach/Aubrie Holtahaus (DO), 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
