Rancho Santa Margarita, CA — JSerra JV girls went up to SMCHS with one goal in mind - come away with a share of 1st place in Trinity League standings - and they did with a solid 10-8 win! Last minute instructions from Coach Keith: “Do your best and have fun - enjoy the process!” Despite the closeness of this match (we would have won on game count, had we tied 9-9) most of the team members played loose and relaxed. MVP honors go out to Rosalia Ripullo, who again, won 100% of sets played, 3 for 3. 2 doubles teams won 2 of 3 sets played: Anna Solovjev with Natalie Walters and Julia Harkins with Sophia Gonzalez. Anna and Natalie upset their top doubles team in the opening round, which caused them to struggle vs our #3 team, Hayden Gibson and Lauren Smith....allowing us to get 4 games in the 2nd round off their top team. Lauren and Hayden went on to win their 3rd set (tie-breaker!) = match clincher when the running score was 9-7...a huge victory for them and the team. After a slow start in singles, Ava Serentelos fought back in the 2nd round winning 5 straight games for a 6-4 win against their #2 player! This win was the key, pivotal turning point in the match...the team could sense the possibility of victory at this point. Ava also won her third set, ending up with 2 of 3 sets, well played! At the end of the match, Katherine Dygean, fought back from 1-4 to get to a 4-4 tie before being nosed out 4-6. Every one of these extra, hard fought games would have been the margin of victory had we tied...every game counts! Very pleased with this solid team effort - balanced with 5 set wins in singles and 5 set wins in doubles. Next up: Thursday, April 29th at home vs Rosary, 2:30pm.