Karavitch, Young/Rogers win Valley League tennis championships

The Valley League individual tennis tournament took place Nov. 2 to 5 at the Fallbrook Tennis Club and ended with Fallbrook junior Alyssa Karavitch winning the league singles championship and the Fallbrook team of senior Maddie Young and junior Raquelle Rogers capturing the doubles title.

Fallbrook had all of the top three doubles teams. Young and Rogers defeated senior Colleen Murphy and junior Emily Vu in the final. Young and Rogers defeated junior Megan Lowry and freshman Imogen Isaac in one of the semifinal matches while Murphy and Vu prevailed over the Ramona team of senior Elizabeth Bowersox and sophomore Renee Hogervorst in the other semifinal.

Lowry and Isaac defeated Bowersox and Hogervorst in the tiebreaking game for third and fourth place.

Karavitch was one of two Fallbrook players in the singles semifinals; senior Lauren Bashara earned the berth against Karavitch in that round.

"It's what we expected. After our first round in league we kind of had a good feeling of where our girls belonged and where we thought they would be," said Fallbrook coach Dave Ramirez.

In doubles play, Young and Rogers were given the top seed; Murphy and Vu were seeded second; Bowersox and Hogervorst received the third seed; and Lowry and Isaac obtained the fourth seed.

The singles competition seeded Karavitch first, Orange Glen freshman Britney Chau second, Valley Center senior Kaitlyn Hillard third, and Valley Center junior Brooke Clark fourth. Bashara defeated Clark in one of the quarterfinals matches.

"They lived up to their seeds and were very excited about

the prospect of playing in CIF," Ramirez said of the Fallbrook players. "They worked really hard to keep that seed."

All of the singles players and doubles teams who reached the semifinals qualified for the CIF tournament the following week, as did the players who lost in the quarterfinals but then won two playoff games for fifth place.

"The girls didn't take any match for granted," Ramirez said. "It worked out well."

A high school tennis dual match involves three singles players and three doubles teams from each school with each singles player contesting a set against each of the other school's singles players and each doubles team playing against each of the opposing doubles teams.

The league tournament allows a school to enter four singles players and four doubles teams, and if some schools do not have that depth a coach may seek a fifth singles player or doubles team.

Fallbrook was one of three schools with five doubles teams; senior Jaylene Romero was paired with freshman Makena Larson while junior Katie Regotti teamed with freshman McKenna Billmeier.

All five Fallbrook doubles teams won at least one match. Regotti and Billmeier began the tournament with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over their Oceanside counterparts to advance to the round of 16. Regotti and Billmeier then competed with Valley Center juniors Mandi Malich and Sierra Sisler.

Malich and Sisler took a 7-5 victory in the first set. Regotti and Billmeier evened the match with a 6-4 victory. That forced a tiebreaking game to 10 points. Malich and Sisler advanced to the quarterfinals with a 10-7 win in the tiebreaking game.

Fallbrook's four other doubles teams all had first-round byes. Romero and Larson began play in the round of 16 against the Orange Glen duo of senior Rubi Hernandez and junior Heather Sandoval. A 6-1, 6-1 victory advanced Romero and Larson to the quarterfinals against Bowersox and Hogervorst. The Ramona players earned the semifinal berth with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph at the expense of Romero and Larson.

Lowry and Isaac won their round of 16 match against Ramona juniors Amanda Abbot and Toni Radeke by 6-0 and 6-1 scores. The quarterfinal match with Malich and Sisler ended with the Fallbrook tandem on the winning side of a pair of 6-0 sets.

In the round of 16, Murphy and Vu defeated the Ramona tandem of junior Jamie Roe and senior Grace Berry in 6-1 and 6-2 sets. A 6-0, 6-2 triumph in the quarterfinals over their Oceanside opposition pitted Murphy and Vu in the semifinals against Bowersox and Hogervorst.

The Fallbrook netters captured a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Bowersox and Hogervorst to advance to the final. "It was pretty dominating, especially Emily with her forehand," Ramirez said. "Colleen was an animal. She overpowered the girls."

During the first round of league play, Bowersox was the Bulldogs' #1 singles player and Hogervorst played in the #2 singles position. Ramona coach Rose Darrough paired Bowersox and Hogervorst as a doubles team for the Bulldogs' final four dual matches, including the Oct. 20 contest against Fallbrook in which Bowersox and Hogervorst won doubles sets against Murphy and Vu and against Lowery and Isaac.

Murphy and Vu had played as a doubles team throughout the season. "That was a big advantage, I think. They kind of caught the team out of position a few times and kind of exploited that," Ramirez said.

Young and Rogers began their path to this year's championship with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over the Ramona team of Hannah Nowakowski and Halli Romero. In the quarterfinals, Young and Rogers defeated another Ramona duo, taking a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over juniors Betsy Dean and Tori Perfect.

Young and Rogers won both sets in the semifinal against Isaac and Lowry but required 25 games to do so. The first set was tied at five games apiece before Young and Rogers prevailed in the final two games for a 7-5 victory. "The first set was very competitive," Ramirez said. "It was back and forth. It could have gone either way."

The second set was tied at six games apiece, forcing a tiebreaking game to seven points. Young and Rogers captured a 7-5 victory in the tiebreaking game.

"It could have gone either way," Ramirez said.

Ramirez was not surprised that the fourth-seeded team could compete so well against the top seeds. "They played well. I thought they were very good," he said. "Some critical deuce points late in the set is what cost them."

A coach normally gives instructions to his or her players during the appropriate break between games or sets. Ramirez chose not to allow either of his doubles teams advice advantage over the other partners but rather provided that advice to all of his players. "I got them all four to the net and I gave them instructions as a whole," Ramirez said. "They appreciated that very much."

Last year, Young and then-senior Rebecca DuPont won the doubles championship; in the final they defeated 2014 Ramona seniors Danielle Vizcarra and Rebecca Vaca. This year the final was between two Fallbrook teams. "That's pretty exciting. That was pretty nice," Ramirez said.

The first set of the final was tied at six games apiece before Young and Rogers won the 7-1 tiebreaking game. "That was a good first set," Ramirez said.

Young and Rogers won the second set by a 6-0 score to conclude their path to the league championship. "They got a little loose in the second set and Maddie and Raquelle played much better to win that second set much easier," Ramirez said.

The third-place game was to eight points. Lowry and Isaac won an 8-0 victory against Bowersox and Hogervorst. "Those girls worked hard. They were pretty proud of their efforts," Ramirez said of Lowry and Isaac.

Four of the five Fallbrook singles players also won at least one match, although senior Halee Olsen did not win on the court. Olsen was scheduled to play Orange Glen junior Vanessa Cruz, but Cruz was ill and defaulted. Olsen ended her high school tennis career in the round of 16 with a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Oceanside's JoJo Mageo.

Ashley Tanner also advanced to the round of 16 after receiving a first-round bye, but the sophomore lost a pair of 6-0 sets to Clark.

The final high school win for senior Celine Keshavarzi, who had a first-round bye, was a 7-5, 6-2 victory in the round of 16 against Oceanside's Chasity McManigal. That win gave Keshavarzi a quarterfinals match against Hillard, who won 6-4 and 6-3 sets.

Bashara opened play with a 6-1, 6-0 win against Ramona's Jessica Nelson. Bashara's round of 16 match was a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Oceanside's Zanasia Graham.

Bashara's quarterfinals victory over Clark involved 6-4 and 6-1 sets. "That was a great match," Ramirez said.

"She did an awesome job of calming down, using her energy well, playing great tennis," Ramirez said. "It became overwhelming to the opponent and eventually dominated her in the second set, so I was really happy about that."

Karavitch followed her first-round bye with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Valley Center junior Charlotte McCarrick and a 6-1, 6-0 triumph against Oceanside's Jylian Brown.

Last year, Karavitch defeated Rogers in the singles final. This year Karavitch faced Bashara in the semifinal. "Alyssa kind of overpowered her in that semi," Ramirez said.

Although Karavitch won a pair of 6-0 sets, Bashara was able to win points. "A lot of the games went to deuce, ad in, ad outs," Ramirez said. "Under the circumstances that was a huge effort."

Karavitch then won the singles championship with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Chau.

"Her ability was way more solid than the rest of the competition," Ramirez said of Karavitch. "I'm very proud of her being able to stay focused."

Karavitch also had off-court contributions to the team and not only in a leadership and support capacity. "She also does the team video for everybody, which is pretty awesome," Ramirez said.

The planned North County Conference realignment for 2016 will remove Oceanside and Mission Vista, which does not have tennis, from the Valley League while adding Escondido and San Pasqual to the Valley League. "We're excited about the league changing next year," Ramirez said. "We want more opportunities."