 | | | Maddie Silveira Photo Dale Kang | | | | | | Finishing the regular season with an 18-3 record and 10-0 in league play, Miramonte entered the NCS team tournament with real optimism as the No. 2 seed. Miramonte easily won their first two matches against Tamalpais (7-0) and American (6-1).
In the semifinal match, Miramonte faced third seeded Redwood High School with whom they had split matches during the regular season but came up short, losing 3-4 and then saw Redwood defeat the No. 1 seed, Monte Vista 5-2, to win the championship. "It was heartbreaking to lose to Redwood, but they were really good," head coach Rikki Sorenson said. "We had knocked them out of the NCS the last two years, and they had enough of getting beaten by Miramonte and they played really well."
Despite the loss, Sorenson exuded great pride in the team. "They exceeded all of my expectations this year," she said. "Caitlin Chan at line one led the way in singles along with Nicole Hui and Nicole Guo lifting the team. We had very good chemistry and a really strong work ethic that was better than I've had in years and that just raised everybody's level," Sorenson said. "Hui, a senior who played line three singles, was the person that drove that more than anybody. She's incredibly committed and hardworking and a lot of people just fed off of that and followed it. It was really amazing to see the team's growth in the course of the season."
Miramonte's doubles teams were a real strength all year. At the Diablo Athletic League tournament, Caitlin Chan and Maddie Silveira, Alison Rhee and Audrey Kosla, and Emily Suh and Madeline Essner finished in first, second and third respectively. "I don't know if that has ever been done," Sorenson said. "Our doubles teams were just amazing finishing the season with a 29-1 record," Sorenson said.
At the NCS tournament, Miramonte pointed to the doubles championship, entering two teams, Rhee and Kosla and sophomores Chan and Silveira, normally singles players who opted to play doubles.
Rhee and Kosla lost to Redwood's doubles team and Chan and Silveira defeated Deer Valley and then Redwood 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. They went on to defeat Amador Valley 6-4, 6-1 but lost in the finals to the Amador Valley 4-6, 1-6.
Despite a semifinal finish in the team tournament and a second place in the doubles tournament, it was not what Sorenson was hoping for. For Sorenson, a successful season is when they win the NCS tournament which is her goal every year: "I'm always trying to see if we can make that happen which is a really difficult thing to do. So, it was disappointing to not get what we wanted but like I said, all season long, the work effort led to some really great victories over Northgate and Campolindo. We had some really good matches, but we just couldn't quite get it across the finish line. And so, I'd say it was a great season, but with a disappointing finish." |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA