Aragon dominates Panthers

Which is the predicament the Burlingame girls’ tennis team found itself in against Aragon in the championship match of the Peninsula Athletic League’s Central Coast Section play-in tournament.

The Panthers’ No. 1 player was late and with head coach Doug Stone having already announced and set his lineup, with the players on the court warming, there was nothing he could do to change the lineup.

Definitely changes things dramatically,” Stone said.

The match should have been a showdown. Instead, it turned into an Aragon rout as the Dons swept the Panthers, 7-0.

With the win, Aragon will join regular-season Bay Division champion, Carlmont, in the CCS tournament, beginning Monday, Nov. 10.

“Burlingame has a top-quality program,” said Aragon head coach Dave Owdom. “But one girl (missing) can make a huge difference.”

The two teams tied for second place behind an undefeated Carlmont squad, with Aragon earning the top seed in the tournament via a tiebreaker over Burlingame. The two had split their two, regular-season matches. We saw Wednesday’s result in the PAL Bay Division opener Sept. 9, when the Panthers, without their regular No. 1 singles player, fell to the Dons 7-0.

In the rematch Oct. 2, Burlingame was at full strength and the Panthers pulled out a 4-3 victory.

“I’d rather have played them at their best (Wednesday),” Owdom said. “That’s how you get better.”

Both cruised to wins in their semifinal matches Tuesday, with Aragon beating the Ocean Division champ and fourth-seeded Woodside, 7-0. Burlingame, which had it top lineup against third-seeded Menlo-Atherton, posted a 5-2 victory.

The Dons were especially impressive as not only did they not lose a set, they dropped only seven games out of 91 games played against the Wildcats, winning three of the seven matches by scores of 6-0, 6-0.

Going into the championship match Wednesday in San Mateo, Burlingame’s Stone had to make changes to his entire lineup. All the singles players moved up a spot and then Stone broke up his No. 2 doubles team by placing Caroline Rafferty in the No. 4 singles spot, who Stone called his No. 5 singles player.

“In this case, it’s not a big difference in our 4 and 5 (singles players),” Stone said.

He then had to shake up his No. 2 and No. 3 doubles team, with Katie Jarrett and Fiona Larlab forming the No. 2 duo and the Endicott sisters, junior Ali and freshman Bailey, pairing at No. 3 doubles.

Even at full strength, Burlingame would have had their hands full. Without the best player at the top of their ladder, the Panthers had almost no chance.

Aragon’s No. 3 singles players, Shanay Biouk, and No. 1 Mia Lo came off within moments of each other to give the Dons two quick points. Biouk was first off, as she thumped her way to a 6-0, 6-0 win.

Lo duplicated that score at No. 1 singles. Not much later, Aragon had its third point as Ella Teng finished off a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 3 singles and it was only a matter of time before that match-clinching fourth point would come.

But Burlingame didn’t give it up easily. Rafferty, playing at No. 4 for the Panthers, was down just a game, 4-3, midway through the first set before Aragon’s Hayley Chong closed it out, 6-3.

Meanwhile, the three Aragon doubles teams were taking their first sets as Chong went on to close out the Dons’ fourth team point with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles.

But the Panthers’ doubles teams kept fighting. The Dons No. 1 doubles team of Jessa Williams and Allison Newman cruised to a first-set win, 6-1, over Burlingame’s Ella Vuong and Greta Martin. But the Panthers pair rallied in the second set, winning 6-4, to set up a third-set, super tiebreaker.

The Dons won the first three points, but the Panthers duo stayed within striking distance, closing to 5-3. But Aragon’s Williams and Newman responded by winning the final five points – with Williams placing the winning shot to the back right corner to finish off a 6-1, 4-6, 10-3 win and give the Dons their sixth point.

Aragon’s Meilin Rife and Catie Wu also needed a third-set tiebreaker of the Endicott pair, posting a 6-3, 6-7(4), 11-9 victory.

Despite the sweep, Stone was pleased to see his team compete under adverse conditions.

“These girls have really stepped up,” Stone said. “They’ve had to deal a lot of adversity this year.”

While Aragon earned the PAL’s second automatic CCS bid, Owdom thinks Burlingame should garner an at-large bid.

“They’ll have at least one vote,” said Owdom, who is one of the PAL’s representatives at the CCS meeting.

“They should get in, no problem, I think” Owdom continued. “They deserve it.”