Girls Varsity Tennis vs Thacher

October 18, 2019

Cate girls tennis won a 10-8 contest over Thacher in Ojai today in what was a battle between the top two schools in the Tri-Valley League.

After defeating Thacher 13-5 earlier in the season, Cate featured a very different lineup in this match, and what is likely for tomorrow’s match against San Marcos.

Carol Cai ’20 and Ashi Kamra ’22 went 3-0 at #2 doubles while first-year varsity players Julianna Forry ’22 and Maesa Vongkusolkit ’22 went 2-1 – their lone loss coming in a tie-break set against the top Thacher pair on the day.

In singles, Grace Fuss ’20 recorded three 6-0 victories, while the key victory belonged to freshman Ellie Tunnell. Tunnell, playing at #2 singles for the first time, gutted out an 8-6 tie-break win in the second round that turned out to be critical to the overall victory.

“Ellie was awesome today. She’s the only freshman that made varsity and yet here she is picking up a big win for us in a tight match against our league rivals”, remarks Coach Thorpe after the victory.

The young players deserve a lot of credit for our success this season, with Julianna and Maesa also stepping up for two wins today.

Grace and Carol are our automatic six sets but they’re also our senior captains. It’s good to know we’ve got young guns stepping up to the plate because we’re going to have big shoes to fill next season.

Cate plays again tomorrow at 3pm on the Mesa for a chance to finally lay claim to the title “best team in Santa Barbara County.” Their opponent, San Marcos High, has narrowly defeated them each of the last four seasons.