No happy ending for Menlo girls' tennis, falls 6-1 to Harker in the Central Coast Section championship match

Instead, sixth-seeded Harker rewrote the script and had its own fairytale ending. Appearing in their first-ever CCS finals, the Eagles dominated. They won the first set in six of the seven matches and they rode that momentum to an emphatic 6-1 win at Menlo School Friday afternoon.

Harker’s story of success was a decade in the making when John Fruttero took over the Harker School middle school program, tasked with turning the Eagles’ high school team into a program that could compete with the top teams in the CCS.

“In middle school, it’s about depth,” Fruttero said. “High school tennis is about 1 through 4.”

Those would be the four singles spots and the Eagles’ strength. With all four players capable of punishing groundstrokes, they simply overwhelmed Menlo (10-2). Harker (10-0) won three of the four singles matches in straight sets.

“I thought we needed to do better in doubles,” said Menlo head coach Bill Shine. “Harker’s singles are so good and it puts pressure on you in other spots.

“Harker is a good team. They beat us today. They played really well.”

Rachel Hernandez set the tone for Harker by winning her No. 3 singles match at love, 6-0, 6-0. Sophia Hernandez and Sarah Wan won at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, 7-5, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-3, respectively.

Wan’s win clinched the title for Harker.

Addie Ahlstrom was the only Menlo singles player to extend a match to three sets. Ahlstrom was blitzed in the first set by Harker’s Emily Novikov, 6-1. She rebounded in the second, however. Down 2-1 early, Ahlstrom broke Novikov’s serve and then held to take a 3-2 advantage. Ahlstrom went on to win five games in a row to take the second set, 6-2.

But Novikov recovered in the third to notch the 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 victory, ending Ahlstrom’s decorated four-year Menlo career.

“What’s she’s done for the program, she’s iconic,” Shine said of Ahlstrom’s Menlo career. “She’s been nails all four years and has won big matches. She’s one of the best to walk the Menlo courts.”

Harker earned its second point at No. 2 doubles, where Natasha Rajavam and Kelcie Fan posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Menlo’s Lindsey Ball and Penelope Anderson.

The Knights picked up their first point with a win at No. 1 doubles. Bryn Brady and C.C. Golub fell behind quickly in the first set, dropping the first three games to Emma Gao and Sachi Bajai.

But Golub and Brady quickly righted the ship and reeled off six straight wins to take the first set, 6-3. In the second set, it was the Menlo tandem that jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead and rode that momentum to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

It would be the only one on the day for Menlo.

Menlo’s Natalie Westermann and Alexandra Viret sent their No. 3 doubles match to a third set, but could not pull out the win, falling to Anushka Mehrotta and Fonda Hu in three sets.

“Everybody thought it was lucky (when we beat Menlo 4-3 in March),” Fruttero said. “I’m so pumped the girls got to prove that was one of our worst matches of the season.

“(Winning the CCS) is monumental.”