Girls Tennis Defeats Villanova to Close Out Regular Season

October 18, 2024

Girls Varsity Tennis completes their second straight undefeated Tri-Valley League championship season.

The Rams move to 13-1 overall with a blemish-less victory over visiting Villanova Prep. The 18-0 win completes Cate’s 8-0 sweep of league play, during which the defending CIF D3 Champions never lost more than 2 sets in any match.

How it Happened

Cate got singles sweeps from Reyna Takahashi ’27 and Colette Chang ’25, who normally anchor the singles lineup. Chang has played #1 doubles for most of the last three seasons now at Cate, becoming a specialist, but took the opportunity today to show that she has considerable singles ability as well.

Claire Tang subbed in for #1 player Ivy Huang ’28 after her first round victory, claiming two wins for herself. Tang had gone 2-1 against Villanova earlier this season, and today managed to take a 6-3 victory over the player who had defeated her previously.

In doubles play, freshmen Elly Edwards ’28 and Chelsea Newlove ’28paired for a trio of 6-0 wins in their first match together. Junior combo Claire Bianchi and Elsie Chamberlain played together for the first time this season as well, earning 6-2, 6-0 set-wins before giving way to Gwendi Rogers ’27 and Edie Abbott’27, who won the final round 6-1.

Finally, singles players Lisa Hasebe ’27 and Jade Wang ’28partnered in doubles, winning two rounds comfortably, before JV call-up Lotte Nicholas ’28 partnered with Wang to take her first varsity win in the final round.

What’s next for Cate Tennis?

The Tri-Valley League Individuals Tournament begins on Tuesday, October 22nd at 1pm. The event will be hosted by Cate, with the final rounds to be played on Thursday, October 24th. Between TVL Individuals play, Cate will host a non-league match against a long-time rival in San Marcos High School.

During the last great period of Cate Girls’ Tennis history (2015-2019), San Marcos narrowly defeated the Rams 4 times, before finally succumbing in 2019. During that 5-year period, Cate lost only those 4 matches, going a stellar 58-4 during regular season play, en-route to 2 CIF D2 Quarterfinals appearances and a further 3 D1 playoff appearances.