Fountain Valley girls’ tennis makes program history at CIF Individuals

CLAREMONT —  Athletes at any level often talk about leaving a legacy.

Fountain Valley High School senior Katelyn Nguyen may have played her final competitive tennis match Wednesday morning at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.

In doing so, however, the two-year team captain made history.

Barons coach Harshul Patel said Nguyen and junior partner Kendra Ly were the first doubles team in program history to advance to the round of 16 at the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament.

It was part of a big season for Fountain Valley, which as a team also earned the highest ranking — No. 5 in the Open Division — in program history.

“We definitely put Fountain Valley on the map,” Nguyen said. “Before, people were like, ‘Fountain Valley who?’ Now they’re going to be like, ‘Fountain Valley, oh, dang.’”

Nguyen and Ly did drop their round of 16 match to Lyric Wilson and Betty Chen of Sierra Canyon, 6-0, 6-4, ending their season.

Fountain Valley’s doubles team of Katelyn Nguyen, left, and Kendra Ly were the Sunset League doubles champions this season.

(James Carbone)

Corona del Mar junior Polina Briggs was the other local player to advance to the penultimate day of the individual season. Briggs lost 6-1, 6-2 to Sophia Dumitrascu of Yorba Linda in a singles round of 32 match.

Nguyen and Ly, the Sunset League doubles champions, started slow but battled to 3-3 in the second set against the Sierra Canyon tandem.

“We just needed to warm up a little bit, but they’re obviously really good players,” Nguyen said. “It was just the attitude, the mental [aspect] of it.”

Wilson served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and the Barons earned a break, but then Sierra Canyon returned the favor on Ly’s serve to end the match.

Nguyen said Fountain Valley went from Division 3 her freshman year to the Open Division this year, clearly a time of growth. When she was a sophomore, the Barons made the Division 2 title match before falling to Beverly Hills.

Most of the players who made it to Wednesday’s action were certainly tournament players, but that was not the case with Nguyen and Ly, Patel said.

“I think coming into high school, I definitely did not expect any of this,” Ly said. “I never really got into a team atmosphere before high school tennis, but coming here, especially my freshman year, they were such an inviting team. Each year we’ve been getting better.”

Polina Briggs of CdM girls’ tennis was the Sunset League singles champion.

(Matt Szabo)

CdM’s Briggs, the Sunset League singles champion, felt the same. The Sea Kings beat Fountain Valley twice in league and again in the Open Division quarterfinals, making the semifinals before falling at top-seeded eventual champion Palos Verdes.

Dumitrascu, a left-handed player, was a bit too consistent for Briggs. She said it was her third time losing to the Mustangs standout, the first two coming in junior tournaments.

“She has really good volleys,” Briggs said. “It was kind of hard to come up to the net with her just because she kept hitting it so deep, so I feel like I have to work on that. I kept hitting it short, so it was easier for her to come in.

“It feels good to qualify, obviously. I think I definitely could have played better, but it is what it is. It feels good to come here anyway and represent Corona del Mar.”