A historic and memorable girls’ tennis season came to an end in Long Beach on Wednesday, at least in part. Long Beach Poly and Wilson, the city’s top two high school teams, were both defeated in the CIF Southern Section semifinals after memorable playoff runs.
League champion Poly picked up their first loss to end the year at 23-1, the second year in a row that they had an undefeated regular season. But Poly ran into a buzzsaw in La Canada and fell 11-7.
“I knew they were really good and there were going to be a few really tough matchups for us,” said Poly coach Ricardo Montecinos. “I can’t have asked for much more than our girls did this year.”
Poly’s doubles tandem of Mey Phy and Julia Sutedjo went 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Sara Soderberg/Tara Rahai went 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Wilson also fell 11-7, but the Bruins had to hit the road to Laguna Beach. Their match went the same way Poly’s did with a 3-3 tie after the first round and then a slide after that. Wilson ended their season at 20-3.
While the season is over for the two teams, who ended the season with a pair of semifinal appearances and a combined record of 43-4, several of the teams’ best players will be competing in the CIF-SS singles/pairs tournament later this month.
