The Los Altos girls tennis team didn’t win its league this fall and entered the Central Coast Section tournament as the fourth seed.
But when the season ended, the Eagles made much sweeter history.
They became the first team from Northern California to capture the CIF state team title, avenging a loss in last year’s final with a victory last month over Corona del Mar.
In the state championship match, Los Altos fell behind 3-0 before rallying to win.
The Eagles traveled to Fresno State and beat the Southern California powerhouse 4-3, breaking through as the inaugural champs from NorCal in the third year of tennis state championships being played.
Los Altos got the bad taste out of its mouth from last year, when the Eagles won NorCal before falling 5-2 to Palos Verdes in the state championship.
“It’s a huge achievement for us,” Los Altos coach Hung Nguyen told the Bay Area News Group.
Though the Eagles ultimately emerged as the top team in the state, the path to get there wasn’t always smooth.
Los Altos finished third in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division with an 8-4 record, entering the Central Coast Section playoffs as the No. 4 seed. The Eagles beat Lynbrook 6-1 in the round of 16, Harker 5-2 in the quarterfinals, Menlo School 4-3 in the semifinals and Los Gatos 5-2 in the championship.
In the NorCal bracket, Los Altos swept Lowell 7-0, beat Miramonte 5-2 and felled University-San Francisco 5-2 in the championship matchup.
“The battle tests leading up to the state finals helped us relieve the pressure a little bit,” Nguyen said. “So I think that’s why the girls performed really well.”
In the state championship match against Corona Del Mar, Los Altos fell down 3-0 early before rallying to win.
After losses at No. 4 singles, No. 2 doubles and No. 3 doubles, Los Altos No. 1 singles player and Wake Forest commit Bella Mariona picked up the Eagles’ first win, beating CDM’s Emilie Lew 6-2, 7-5.
“I’m so blessed to have her,” Nguyen said. “She anchors our team. We’re blessed to have so many strong players at the top, especially in the singles.”
Then Cory Medeiros and Carissa Lai finished off a comeback win at No. 1 doubles, beating top CDM duo Sienna Lunn and Brynn Patterson 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
No. 2 singles player Emily Wu tied the match with a nail-biting 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win, then Pallavi Mallampati sealed it at No. 3 singles with a 7-5, 6-7, 6-0 victory.
Of particular note was the win by Medeiros and Lai. Medeiros began the season as Los Altos’ No. 2 singles player but injured her ankle early in the season.
So she dropped down to doubles, where she helped pick up a key win to help fortify the “singles wall” that Los Altos relied on all season long.
“Once you roll an ankle, I mean, that’s basically it,” Nguyen said. “You’re almost done as a singles player because you can’t move laterally. It turned her into a different player.”
But that version of Medeiros was still plenty for Los Altos to pull it out. Better yet, it serves as an illustration of the depth the Eagles rode all year to soar to the state title.
“I’m so proud of her,” Nguyen said. “She played hurt I would say the entire season. So because of that, we played her at doubles. That’s a testament to our singles too. The depth we have this year kind of let us have something like that.
“You play tennis, injury is going to happen, right? So if we’re not deep, one injury could really derail our season. So I’m so proud that we have players that have versatility to combat all the injuries throughout the year. We were kind of injured through the whole season. It’s a testament to all the players who came back healthy at the end of season to lead us to this amazing run here that we had.”
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