Girls Varsity Tennis Closes out the Regular Season in Royal Fashion

October 24, 2024

Cate girls’ tennis (15-1) wrapped up regular season play today with a 14-4 win over visiting San Marcos High School (10-5). The Rams have not lost to any CIF Southern Section opponent this season, with their lone defeat coming at the hands of Rancho Bernardo High School from the San Diego Section.

How it happened
Cate continued to see dominant play from singles starters Ivy Huang ’28, Reyna Takahashi ’27, and Claire Bianchi ’26. The trio won their first-round matches against their San Marcos counterparts 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 (respectively). Sophomore Claire Tang took over for Huang, winning her remaining two sets 6-0, 6-2.

In doubles play, all three Cate teams competed well but were unable to get past SMHS’s top team, recent Channel League runners-up, Kate Selby and Sydney Posch. However, Colette Chang ’25/Elly Edwards ’28 and Elsie Chamberlain ’26/Chelsea Newlove ’28 both took wins over the 3rd-place Channel League doubles team of Ava Vasquez and Hattie Valdez-Lindgren.

Lisa Hasebe ’27 and Jade Wang  ’28 went 2-1 on the day for Cate, in preparation for their Tri-Valley League doubles championship match tomorrow at 3:30pm. Similarly, it was a preparation day for singles #1-seed Ivy Huang, who will try to be the second-consecutive Cate School freshman to win the TVL singles championship (Lisa Hasebe, 2023).

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already managed to squeeze 16 matches into a season that started only 8 weeks ago, especially with a 10-day gap near the beginning for our school’s “Outings Week.” In this time, our girls have grown significantly in their capabilities as tennis players, and their confidence, not only as defending CIF champions, but as 2024 CIF championship contenders.

The progress we’ve made as individuals and as a team was on full display today, as our doubles teams moved fluidly together throughout the matches and our singles players held down their end with consistent, heady play. We’ve also had great leadership from our team captains, especially our lone senior, Colette Chang, who played her last regular season match in a Cate uniform today.