All it takes is for one player to be out to completely jumble a high school tennis lineup. So when the Aragon girls’ tennis team was without its starting No. 4 singles player out, it could have spelled doom in a big match against host Burlingame.
But Aragon head coach Dave Owdom has become adept at juggling his lineup — he’s had to do it a lot this year. But if nothing else, the Dons have proven to be deep and it was that depth that led them to a 4-3 win over the Panthers.
“We have a lot of really good players,” Owdom said. “But they don’t always get in the starting lineup.”
Aragon (12-2 PAL Bay) may have won the battle, Burlingame (12-2) ultimately won the war. The Dons’ victory pulled them into a second-place tie with the Panthers in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division standings.
But Burlingame will be the No. 1 seed in the PAL team tournament next week to determine the PAL’s second automatic Central Coast Section bid. Undefeated Bay Division champion Carlmont receives a bye into CCS by virtue of being PAL champion. Burlingame and Aragon split their two regular-season matches, with the Panthers winning the first round 5-2. Aragon needed to win 6-1 or 7-0 Thursday to beat Burlingame on tiebreakers.
Instead, the Dons come up two points short. Burlingame, as the No. 1 seed, with play No. 4 seed Mills, which won the Ocean Division title. Aragon, the No. 2 seed, will host No. 3 Menlo-Atherton, beginning Tuesday, with the championship match Wednesday at the site of the higher seed. Both matches start at 4 p.m.
Owdom, however, just wanted to win the match Thursday — regardless of score.
“Tied for second in the PAL looks good on the resume (f0r CCS),” Owdom said.
Both coaches said their teams are very closely matched and that showed Thursday, but it was Aragon’s super substitutes that carried the day.
To know if the Dons are fielding their best lineup for a given match, just look to see where Jessa Williams is playing. Normally a member of the Dons’ No. 1 doubles team, she has actually played more singles matches this season. Regardless of where she plays, Williams wins. Owdom slotted her in the No. 3 singles spot against Burlingame, coming in with a 6-0 singles record.
After Williams and her opponent, Evelyn Du, traded breaks early in the first set, Williams eventually gained a 4-3 lead. Because of her doubles training, Williams is more than comfortable at the net and her volley game had Du on a string.
With the set tied at 5-all, Williams held and then got a service break to take the first set 7-5.
It was more of the same in the second set, with Williams using a solid all-court game to get out to an early lead and then, leading 3-2, got a service break to go up 4-2. She then held serve and broke one more time to take the win 7-5, 6-2.
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Williams improves to 7-0 in singles play and is 5-0 in doubles.
But with Williams moving to singles, Owdom had to put someone into the No. 1 doubles slot to team with Alison Newman. Owdom settled on Taylor Lee — who normally plays No. 2 doubles — and they went on to post a straight-set, 6-3, 6-1 victory and the first team point for the Dons.
With the win, Newman improves to 13-0 at doubles this season.
But with Lee playing at No. 1 doubles, it meant Owdom needed to fill in a spot at No. 2 doubles. He turned to Maddy Fong to pair with Kat Russel and again the move paid off as the Dons’ duo beat Burlingame’s Ella Wang and Lyra Sheng in three sets. The Panthers’ pair won the first set, 6-4, but Fong and Russel rallied to win the second 6-1 and the super-tiebreaker third set 10-7.
“Maddy is a good player,” Owdom said. “She’s not usually in the starting lineup.”
That win gave the Dons their second team point. Williams’ win at No. 3 singles gave Aragon its third point before Burlingame finally got on the scoreboard with Samantha Tom’s 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles.
But the Dons got the clinching, fourth team point at No. 4 singles, where Lian Wang won 7-6, 6-1.
There was still plenty for the Panthers to play for, however. Shea Mulready’s win at No. 1 singles gave the Burlingame the point it needed to break the tie with Aragon for the PAL tournament.
Things didn’t look good for Mulready early, however, as she had a tough time with Anna He, who would win the first set 6-2, winning the final four games in a row.
Mulready jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set before He got a hold and a break to close to 5-4 before Mulready served out the set to force a third-set, super tiebreaker.
Again, Mulready started fast before He got back into it. Mulready was leading 6-2 in the race to 10, but He won five of the next six points to close to tie it at 7-all.
But Mulready won the final three points to close out the victory, 10-7.
“I was really proud of Shea,” said Burlingame head coach Doug Stone. “It was a tough match to win. She had to be the one to dictate the point. It required her to be patient. … It took a lot for her win to that match.”
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