Girls Tennis: Poway, LCC Look to Make an Impact

Veteran Poway girls tennis coach Evi Valles Poway has long had the Titans near the top of the Palomar League, racking up more than  500 career wins. Last year, Poway reached the CIF semifinals. 

This season the Titans and coach Valles hope to improve on their CIF placement and their third-place finish in the powerful Palomar League.  

In order to make those improvements, Poway will again have to deal with the dominant presence of Torrey Pines. The Falcons will be going for their 22nd straight CIF San Diego Section title this fall. To put that into perspective, the Falcons had been taking home CIF titles for four or five years before this season’s senior class was even born.  

“Torrey Pines, RB and Westview are all stronger this year, so every match is going to be a battle,” said Valles. “We’re going to try to get the girls to play smart and try to exploit the other teams’ weaknesses.” 

The Titans (2-4) are bringing back four starters from 2010, including senior Gio Crivello and junior Katherine Klahn. Freshman Savanah Goode also will have a big say in Poway’s success this season.

“It’s some pressure being the No. 1 in singles as just a freshman, but it also feels pretty good too,” said Goode. “If we can stay positive, work together, and play our hearts out as a team we’ll have a really good chance of doing well this year.” 

La Costa Canyon, who got the better of the Titans in Wednesday's non-league match, made the CIF quarterfinals last fall. This year, though, there will be a new leader on the sidelines. Erik Mateljan comes over as coach from El Camino High in an attempt to take the Mavericks to the next level. 

“We have a good shot at being in the top four teams in the county at the end of the year,” said Mateljan. “We have a young team that keeps improving every match, and we will be very solid for the next few years. I’m real excited for what lies ahead.”

The Mavericks (4-2) were ranked seventh in the county in the  North County Times preseason poll. LCC has seven returnees and will be adding a few freshman who the Mavericks hope will make a major impact in their first year at the high school level. One already has taken over the roll as the No. 1 singles player.

“We’re a really close team and we have a lot of fun together, but we know when it’s time to work hard and get intense,” said Mavericks freshman Nicole Yermanos. “We’re really hoping we can win (the Avocado West) league this year. We just need to keep training and practicing hard, but we’re getting better every match.”

Wednesday night, the Mavericks and Titans faced off and host LCC came away with a convincing 14-4 victory. The Mavericks dropped only two doubles and two singles matches in the process, with standout freshman Yermanos winning all three of her matches by the scores of 6-0, 6-0 and 6-4.

More match results (from the North County Times)