Girls tennis beats powerful Mira Mesa, gains 2 league wins
By Bill Tamburrino
Coach Matt McCormick’s Bulldog girls tennis team had a successful week as it won an important non-league match against Mira Mesa and then beat two Valley League rivals to improve its record to 9-4 overall and 6-1 in the Valley League.
The two league wins set up a showdown for the Valley League title in the final week of league action against Del Norte High School.
Ramona won its most important match of the season as it beat Division I power Mira Mesa High School 11-7 in a match with CIF Division II implications.
This was a very important match for CIF seeding purposes because Mira Mesa is in the same league as two great Division II teams, Serra and Point Loma, both of which Mira Mesa has beaten.
”Mira Mesa stacked doubles to try and throw us off our game plan, but our singles players played amazingly strong and won eight out of nine sets against a strong Mira Mesa team,” said McCormick. ”Jessica Failla (6-0, 6-0 and 6-0) continued her quest for a CIF championship with complete dominance of the Lady Marauder singles players. Megan Douglass (6-3, 6-4 and 6-1) swept all of the Mira Mesa singles players, and Elizabeth Bowersox (6-1, 4-6 and 6-1) won two of three in fiercely contested matches.
“The doubles players faced a very strong and densely stacked doubles corps from Mira Mesa. Lauren Dunker and Rebecca Vaca bounced back from a loss against the number one team and were able to defeat the two and three teams. Cassidy Owens and Danielle Vizcarra played a close set against the number one team and were able to take down the number three Lady Marauder doubles team. Caroline Lopresti and Alyssa Virgilio picked up valuable experience and were able to win games against all three Mira Mesa teams.”
The match was very tight. After the first two rounds the score was tied 6-6. In the last round, the Lady Bulldogs simply rose up and took out the Mira Mesa girls, winning five out of six sets to earn the 11-7 victory.
Ramona beat Valley Center 15-3. Failla and Douglass won all three sets as Valley Center could only win one game against Ramona’s top two singles players. Bowersox won two sets and Hanna Kent played tough in her 4-6 loss.
Ramona’s top two doubles teams won five of the six sets. Dunker and Vaca went 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0. Owens and Vizcarra posted scores of 6-2, 4-6 and 6-1. Lopresti and Virgilio also picked up 2 team points with scores of 7-5, 2-6 and 6-1.
Orange Glen was no match for the Lady Dawgs as Ramona romped to a 17-1 league victory. Failla won her only set 6-0 as she finished the week by serving seven bagels (6-0 wins) in seven sets. Kent won her matches, 7-5 and 6-1.
Douglass won 3 team points and Bowersox won two sets.
Ramona’s top two doubles teams, Dunker and Vaca and Owens and Vizcarra, also served up an all bagel menu winning six sets 6-0.
Virgilio and Lopresti won three sets with scores of 6-3, 6-3 and 6-0.
After the Valley League showdown against Del Norte, Ramona will compete in the Valley League individuals and doubles tournament and the CIF team tournament.
Failla has a very good shot at winning the Valley League singles tourney and the CIF singles tourney. Dunker and Vaca are also contenders for the league doubles crown and could make a run deep into the CIF doubles tourney.