Stockdale digs deep for doubles crown
| Sunday, Nov 16 2008 02:36 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:08 PM
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Stockdale's Julie Hutton returns the ball during the final round of the girls' doubles championships Saturday afternoon, which was held at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Teammates Frances Ellison, left, and Julie Hutton, right, give each other a low five after picking up a point during Saturday's girls doubles championships, which was held at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Stockdale's Julie Hutton will be joining the CSUB tennis team.
CLOVIS — Sometimes, winning or losing a championship is all about digging.
Exhibit A, Saturday from the Central Section girls tennis championships at Clovis-Buchanan High: Stockdale's Frances Ellison and Julie Hutton, who dug their heels into a tight second set, coming back to win the final four games of a 6-3, 7-5 victory in the section doubles final.
"The digging in stuff, we've kind of gotten used to that," Hutton said. "We've just learned to control emotions and get out there and do what we know how to do."
And Exhibit B, the singles championship, in which Bakersfield Christian's Lyndsay Cooke dug herself too big of a hole against top-seeded Gabrielle Gatewood of Visalia-Redwood, who rode a flawless first set to a 6-0, 6-3 triumph in a rematch of last year's championship.
"The first set, she was totally on," Cooke said. "She came out swinging and I came out tense."
That was the difference from last year, when Cooke won the first set easily, then missed a match-point opportunity and lost in three sets.
Gatewood wrapped up a 32-0 season by beating both Cooke sisters — freshman Chelby, the No. 4 seed, 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals, and No. 2 seed Lyndsay in the finals.
Chelby Cooke rebounded to beat East's Nancy Ramirez, the No. 3 seed, 6-4, 6-2 for third place. Both Cooke sisters finished 30-1 with their only loss coming Saturday.
"I'm glad I made it this far," Lyndsay Cooke said. "I lived up to my seed and Chelby lived past her seed. I just wish I could have finished a little better."
Ramirez took fourth despite having no feeling in three fingers of her right hand because of a wrist injury.
Ellison and Hutton didn't face that dramatic adversity, but they did have their backs against the wall in the second set against Buchanan's Allison Gobel and Irene Rios.
The top-seeded Stockdale pair had finished off a relatively easy first set but lost the first two games of the second set and kept the Mustangs at bay until it was 5-3.
At that point, Ellison held her serve for 5-4, and the Mustangs came up with back-to-back clutch returns at 30-30 on Rios' serve to finally earn back a service break.
Still, it wasn't completely smooth sailing. Hutton double-faulted twice to open her service game at 5-5, and Stockdale trailed 15-40 when Hutton came up with a big serve and Ellison with a crucial volley to force deuce. Stockdale then won six of the next seven points to finish off Buchanan.
"It feels awesome," Ellison said.
The comeback completed a magical season for Ellison and Hutton, who led the Mustangs to their sixth consecutive section team championship on Wednesday. Primarily singles players with big personalities, they came together to play doubles in the postseason and each won their first individual title.
"There were some growing pains," Stockdale coach Dave Hillestad said. "They both have been the girl that has held the team together when I put them with other girls. But what I liked is they put their egos aside and decided they wanted to team up."
Fresno-Bullard's Katherine McFeeters and Pookie Gonzalez beat Clovis' Krystal Kawano and Gretchen D'Souza 6-3, 6-2 for third place in doubles.
