Mira Costa captures CIF-SS girls tennis title; boys water polo team falls in finals
Mira Costa’s No. 1 doubles team of Olga Nagy, left, and Kacey Feng helped the Mustangs win the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 championship. Photo
Mira Costa girls tennis coach Joe Ciasulli knew beating a team as talented as Dana Hills three times in one season would be tough.
Yet his team won its first section championship since the Mustangs captured the 3A titles in 1975-76 with a sweep of all nine doubles matches in a 13-5 victory at The Claremont Club
“This year we defeated Dana Hills 13-5 at their place and 4-2 in a tournament down in San Diego,” Ciasulli said. “However, it is always difficult to defeat a team three times in a year. And certainly the pressure was much greater this time so the match came down to who can handle the pressure.”
In singles, Mira Costa’s Audrey Vo won two sets 6-0 and 6-1 and Nicole Wuelfing won two sets 6-1 and 6-0.
In doubles, the Mustang teams of Olga Nagy/Kacey Feng won three sets 6-1, 6-2, and 6-2; Lindsay Giese/Peyton Douglas won two sets 6-4 and 6-4; freshmen Haily Huynh/Sydney Vo won three sets 6-2, 6-0, and 7-6(14); and Sydney Miller/Evelyn Le won one set 7-6(7).
Reaching the finals did not come easy as the Mustangs edged Westlake in the semifinals on Wednesday. With the match tied 9-9, Mira Costa pulled out the victory on games won 83-76.
In Division 4, Bishop Montgomery defeated El Toro 10-8 after the match was tied 6-6 after two rounds.
Mira Costa’s Troy Gleason scores a game-tying goal in the third quarter. Photo
Boys Water Polo
Reaching the CIF-Southern Section finals for the first time since 2013, Mira Costa’s boys water team fell to Foothill but not without a fight.
Although Mira Costa (21-10) never led in the game, it gave Foothill (22-10) all it could handle for three quarters tying the score on three occasions before Foothill recorded two unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to seal the 6-4 victory.
Mira Costa’s Ryder Theodore evened the score 1-1 with 3:07 remaining in the first quarter but Foothill answered with two goals before the Mustang’s Hudson Carter scored on a power-play to pull Mira Costa to within one at 3-2.
After the Mustang’s Troy Gleason tied the score 3-3 early in the third quarter, he accomplished the same feat at the end of the quarter evening the score at 4 goals apiece.
Mira Costa was coming off an 8-5 win over second-seeded Dana Hills in the semifinals.