Downey, Warren finished tied for girls tennis Gateway League title
Warren's doubles team of Kathleen Sanchez (R) goes for a shot against Bellflower, as her partner, Nandini Vanmali (left) looks on in Gateway League Individual Championships. Sanchez and Vanmali won the first-round match on Tuesday, Oct. 25. (Photo by Mia Hattery)
LAKEWOOD – In the recently completed inaugural Gateway League schedule, both Warren and Downey were co-champs with identical 7-1 records.
Warren finished first in 2021 in the final year of the San Gabriel Valley League with a perfect 15-0 record.
The CIF-Southern Section team playoffs begin next week. Brackets will be announced Monday (Oct. 31). Warren is in division 3, while Downey is in division 4.
In the meantime, the Gateway League Individuals got underway Monday (October 24) with the singles competition. That was followed on Tuesday (Oct. 25) with the doubles competition.
After two days of tennis, it’s only fitting that the top two teams in the Gateway League had positioned themselves in six of the eight spots in the singles and doubles semifinals to be played on Thursday (Oct. 27). (Results not available at press time – both the semifinals and finals results will appear in next weeks’ edition (Friday Nov. 4).
In Monday’s singles action, one half of the semifinal spot was filled by Warren senior Samantha Pinedo.
The other half of the semifinal bracket was Warren sophomore Jeilyn Rodriguez against Norwalk’s Sarai Cruz.
“(Jeilyn) is probably my best player,” Warren Girls Tennis coach Ray Trejo said. “Last year I moved her up and down the whole year.
“My goal was to have her on JV the whole time, but I understood the fact that she was a little shy and she wanted to be with her friends. Honestly, I didn’t really need her to move up so fast, but I knew that coming into this year I was going to need her points.”
Rodriguez finished with a 20-4 league record this season, while Pinedo was 17-7 in league.
The Doubles semifinals, however, was an all Downey-Warren affair, with each side of the bracket facing teammates against each other.
Downey Girls Tennis coach Micah Karzen, who has been the varsity coach for five years and before that an assistant for seven, explained the unique scenario that was to take place in the doubles semifinals.
“Warren’s one and two will be against each other and my (Downey) one and three will play each other,” explained Karzen. “The two winners will play for the league title and both of those teams - Downey and Warren – will advance to the CIF playoffs as individuals.”
In one semifinal were Downey teammates junior Aneris Ortega and sophomore Joanne Yu facing teammates senior Isabel Park and junior Stephanie Torres.
“(Tuesday) we beat them (Warren) for the win,” Torres said.
The other half were Warren teammates Alyssa Hernandez and Camila Partida facing teammates Madeline Saldana and Samantha De La Rosa.
The first three rounds of the league finals the winner is the first to eight wins.
In the finals, it was the traditional best of three sets, with the third set a 10-point tie breaker.
On Monday’s singles competition, Pinedo won her first and second round matches with identical 8-2 scores to advance to the semifinals.
In the other half of the competition in the singles, Rodriguez won her two matches, 8-1 in round 1 and 8-3 over freshman Bethany Herrera of Downey in round 2.
Another Downey player didn’t make it out of the second round as sophomoreSan Tia fell to No. 2 Seed Cruz.
In the doubles on Day 1 on Tuesday in the first round, Ortega/ Yu had a bye and won 8-5 in round 2.
In that second-round match, it was tied, 5-5, much to the surprise of Karzen.
“It just looked like they were a little nervous and they didn’t play as well as they could in the first few games of the set,” Karzen said. “But, in the last three they played much better more like themselves and dominated the last three games, like they should have. It’s always good when your players have success.”
They rallied for three straight wins to win the match, 8-5, sending them to the semi’s.
Leading 6-5, in the set, Ortega sent a volley to the open court to go up,7-5. She sent another hard shot for the winner to the wide side of the court for the 8-5 win. The Ortega/Yu combo was a perfect 23-0 in league this season.
“I’m really bad against nerves when I’m really nervous,” Yu said. “I started messing up every shot. I started controlling the ball better.
“Downey and Warren are always rivals and I don’t want to lose to them”
Meanwhile, the second doubles team – Park/Torres won their first-round match over the Gahr team of Ascencio/Mendoza and defeated Warren’s team of Kathleen Sanchez/Nandini Vanmali to advance to the semifinals against Ortega/Yu.
“(Tuesday) we beat them (Warren) for the win (first round over Sanchez/Vanmali),” Torres said.
Park compared the competition like the Downey-Warren rivalry in football.
“It feels like a football game again,” she said. “I just hope that we win this time.”
In the other half of the bracket in the doubles, Alyssa Hernandez/Camila Partida defeated the team of Pedraza/Mejia of Bellflower, 8-0 and defeated the Norwalk doubles team of Ortega/Lopez, 8-5, to also advance to the semifinals.
The other half of that bracket is Norwalks’ Gonzalez/Keri against Madeline Saldana/Samantha De La Rosa of Warren in the first round. Saldana/De La Rosa won, 8-1.
The team of Saldana/De La Rosa is the No. 1 Doubles team and became partners last year.
“I was convinced to join tennis by my partner (Saldana) in middle school,” De La Rosa said. “I wanted to play golf, but she said come play with me in tennis. Next thing you know we’re playing on varsity in our freshman year.”
“Our first match was against Gahr and it was bread sticks,” De La Rosa said. Basically, that means that you only gave them one (win).
Saldana/De La Rosa, who finished 21-2 in league this past season, won that second-round match over Norwalk, 8-2, to advance to face their Downey teammates, Hernandez/Partida.
Trejo explained how the level of play will be next week
“We’re going to be playing in division three and Downey will be in division four,” said Trejo, of the upcoming team playoffs. “That’s going to be tough. Division three is extremely competitive. We just want to compete. My thing with the girls is we compete.
“That’s always been the thing with the girls. If you just play the game, weather you lose, 8-0 or win 8-0, or 6-3 or whatever. Just play the game. If you competed, I’m happy with that.
After two weeks of team competition, the Individuals will begin.
“It doesn’t change much,” explained Trejo of the difference between team and individual play. “I always tell them, ‘you’re competing individually, but you’re winning the point for the team.’”