Sea Kings stun Troy

For a photo gallery of the match, click here.

FULLERTON — Dozens of people crowded around the No. 2 doubles court at Troy High on Thursday.

Momentum seemed to swing with every winner made by Corona del Mar High’s Paige Polizois and Danielle Kaiden, as well as Troy’s Samantha Nadres and Stephanie Hui.

The winner of the set would decide everything, namely whose team would be advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division I championship match for the second straight year.

With Polizois serving for the match at 6-5, the game went to four deuces and four match points for CdM.

Everything was hushed on the fourth match point, until Polizois couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“Yes!” she screamed out as Kaiden hit an apparent winner, but Troy got it back. Then Kaiden hit the volley that counted, guiding the ball to an open space.

Plenty of time for Polizois to scream then, as her teammates rushed to hug her and Kaiden. It was game, set and match for the Sea Kings, who finished off their 10-8 upset of the Warriors in the Division I semifinals.

“This is the first match that we’ve won in two or three years as an underdog,” said CdM Coach Brian Ricker, who got the obligatory water cooler dump after the match ended. “It’s a whole different feeling. I’m just excited for the girls.”

No. 3-seeded Corona del Mar (20-2) lives on in its quest to defend its CIF championship. The Sea Kings will play No. 1-seeded Dana Hills for the title, on Monday at 11:30 a.m. at The Claremont Club.

Dana Hills tied Palos Verdes in sets, 9-9, but won, 78-70, on games Thursday in the other semifinal.

Beating Troy seemed like a long shot for CdM. The No. 2-seeded Warriors (16-1) had not lost a dual match all year and won the prestigious CdM All-American Tournament last month.

Troy had also topped the Sea Kings, 10-8, in a nonleague match on Sept. 18.

“I’m more happy now than when we won CIF last year,” said Kaiden, who swept in doubles with Polizois. “This year, we had to fight for it so much harder. Last year was in the bag, but this year so much more heart went into it.”

Everyone contributed for CdM, which never trailed the match after going up, 4-2, in the first go-round. Included in those four sets were close wins from Hailey Hogan at No. 2 singles (7-6), Melissa Matsuoka at No. 3 singles (6-4), Lindsay Zotovich and Karen Ishii at No. 1 doubles (7-5) and Kaiden and Polizois at No. 2 doubles (6-4).

Hogan’s match was particularly big, as she beat Troy’s Stefanie Villajuan. Hogan had lost to Villajuan, 8-0, at the All-American Tournament last year and also lost to her this year in the teams’ nonleague match.

“We’ve never come close to winning a set off her,” Ricker said.

But Hogan and Matsuoka both beat Villajuan and Frances Tseng on Thursday, taking four total sets. When CdM and Troy played earlier, the two CdM sophomores combined for just two singles wins.

“Melissa and I knew that we had to win at least three matches in singles,” Hogan said.

Troy senior Alison Ramos, headed to USC, predictably swept at No. 1 singles. Zotovich and Ishii took two sets for CdM at No. 1 doubles, but a loss in their final set of the day tied the total score at 8-8 with two doubles matches still being played.

Ricker knew that the Sea Kings were behind on games if it came to that, so CdM needed to win both doubles matches.

That’s when Kelli Feeley and Rebecca Beyer came up big for CdM. In a match they were losing, 3-0, they stormed back for a 6-4 win to put their team a set away from victory and set up Polizois and Kaiden’s heroics.

A tough loss to take for Troy Coach Donna Judd, who started five seniors. CdM, by comparison, has just one senior — Kate Stimac — in its regular rotation.

“I was really proud that we kept fighting, and we almost came back and won on game count,” Judd said. “We thought we could do it, and obviously we could on some days. We could play them 10 times and it might be 5-5. Who knows?”

The only thing the Sea Kings know right now is that they’re ecstatic to be headed back to the Division I championship match.

“Troy’s such a good team,” Hogan said. “I don’t even know if we thought we could win. I mean, we did, but it was really slim. It was just such a team effort, and that’s really awesome.”

CIF Southern Section

Division I playoffs

Semifinal

Corona del Mar 10, Troy 8

Singles – Nazemi (CdM) lost to Ramos, 1-6, (sub) Stimac (CdM) lost to Villajuan, 1-6, lost to Tseng, 0-6; Hogan (CdM) lost, 2-6, won, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Matsuoka (CdM) lost, 0-6, won, 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles – Ishii-Zotovich (CdM) def. Nadres-Hui, 7-5, def. Geiss-Kang, 6-1, lost to Liao-Radde, 4-6; Kaiden-Polizois (CdM) won, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1; Feeley-Nguyen (CdM) lost, 1-6, (sub) Feeley-Beyer (CdM) won, 6-4, Feeley-Nguyen lost, 2-6.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].