Garces cruises past Liberty in tennis
| Wednesday, Sep 08 2010 10:15 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Sep 08 2010 10:37 PM
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Garces High School sophomore Gracie Jacobs returns the ball to her Liberty High School opponents during a doubles match at the meet held at Liberty on Wednesday. Garces swept the meet 12-0.
Garces High School junior Annie Berry lobs the ball back while playing a doubles match with her teammate, sophomore Gracie Jacobs, against Liberty High School during a meet held at Liberty on Wednesday. Garces swept the meet 12-0.
Maybe this Division I thing won't be too hard on Garces girls tennis program after all.
The Rams blanked host Liberty 12-0 on Wednesday in a victory important worth a seeding line in the D-I playoffs -- and worth confidence for a program that won the Division II title a year ago but that lost several key seniors.
"I think the CIF doesn't look at how you won," Garces coach Barb Johnston said. "They just know you won. If you've got a senior-laden team, then they move you up when you've got all these freshmen. It's going to be tough this year."
Garces (1-1) played like a senior-laden team Wednesday, specializing in winning close matches. The Rams won six sets that were 6-4 or closer and three matches in a third-set tiebreaker.
That included the last match of the day, No. 7 singles between Garces' Maddie Lundy and Liberty's Aly Pifer. By the time the teams had gathered around the corner court at Liberty, the team match had long been decided.
But the ending was emblamatic of the day. In a testy tiebreaker -- line judges from each team were called for after a couple of disputed calls -- Lundy fought off three match points against before finishing off a 6-4, 6-7, 11-9 victory with a forehand winner down the line.
"You can teach forehands or backhands, but you can't teach heart," Johnston said. "And today we had a lot of heart."
The Patriots were game all night long. Other than No. 1 singles -- which Liberty ended up defaulting to Garces' Gracie Jacobs after Karissa Coronel was late to the match because of a driving test -- Liberty lost just one match in which it didn't take a set to nine or more games.
"I'm proud of my girls," Liberty coach Stephanie Ollivier said. "They played a lot of close matches, and we had opportunities. They've got a great team.
"... We got destroyed by them last year. I mean, we barely got games off of them. So I mean, overall, it was a good day for us."
But ultimately, Garces had too much. Jacobs teamed with No. 4 player Annie Berry to beat Emily Smith-Isabella Busacca, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles, and two other returners from last year's team, Zoe Tucker and Crimson Hochhalter, won straight-set singles matches before teaming for a 6-3, 6-0 victory against Coronel and Katie Sewall.
"Everybody one through eight competed hard, and nobody gave up today," Johnston said. "That was awesome."
Most of all though, Johnston was proud of her team was able to come through in tight matches, like Mia Jannina's turnaround at No. 6 singles. She lost the first set 6-0 before coming back with 6-1 and 11-9 victories.
That resiliency is a skill the Rams will need in the brave new world of Division I.
"Experience-wise we're down," Johnston said. "We've got a lot, a lot of work to do, but we've got girls who are willing to do it."
Garces 12, Liberty 0
At Liberty
SINGLES -- Jacobs d. Coronel by default; Tucker d. Smith, 6-3, 6-1; Hochhalter d. I. Busacca, 6-2, 6-4; Berry d. Sewall, 6-1 ,7-5; Atchison d. Bickett, 6-4, 6-0; Jannina d. S. Busacca, 0-6, 6-1, 11-9; Lundy d. Pifer, 6-4, 6-7, 11-9; Cauzza d. Amarikwa, 6-1, 7-5.
DOUBLES -- Jacobs-Berry d. Smith-I. Busacca, 6-1, 6-2; Tucker-Hochhalter d. Coronel-Sewall, 6-3, 6-0; Jannino-Atchison d. Bickett-S. Busacca, 6-4, 6-4; Lundy-Cauzza d. Pifer-Amerikwa, 6-7, 6-3, 10-6.
JV -- Liberty 8, Garces 4
