Frankly, it would be bigger news if San Marino High School senior Anessa Lee had not qualified for the CIF girls’ tennis playoff Round of 16, but the success of teammates and doubles partners Elaine Wu and Rakel Ang is buzzworthy in itself. The nationally ranked Lee, who is heading to Vanderbilt next fall on a full ride, enjoyed a pair of byes before dispatching her two opponents by identical scores of 6-0, 6-0 to reach Friday’s Sweet Sixteen in individual competition. The Wu-Ang Clan had to do a little more work, but arrived at the same destination to add a little dash to the doubles draw.
“They [Wu and Ang] came together at the right time,” said San Marino High School tennis Coach Melwin Pereira, who accompanied the Lady Titan doubles squad to the Seal Beach Tennis center on Tuesday. “I give them a lot of credit. They didn’t panic and they just kept at it.”
Wu, a sophomore, and Ang, a junior, finished second at the Rio Hondo League finals to qualify for CIF. They received a first-round bye last week before defeating Trisha Senthilnathan and Abigail Yoo of Cerritos 6-1, 6-2, then eliminating Long Beach Poly’s Katherine Johnson & Ava Deguzman 6-4, 6-4 to reach Tuesday’s Round of 32. There, they found themselves in a pitched battle against Megan Cuan & Juliana Kim of Yorba Linda. Down a set, Wu & Ang found themselves facing elimination in the second frame when the duo reached down deep and accessed a reserve supply of grit, winning the final four games to claim the set by a score of 7-5.
“The match was tight the entire time,” Ang said on Tuesday evening. “We just continued fighting and grinding out each point. For me, it was more about the competition than winning.”
She got both.
Wu-Ang breezed in the third set to win by a final score of 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 and earn a return trip to Seal Beach on Thursday morning for the doubles Sweet Sixteen.
“I am very happy for them,” Pereira said. “The girls have worked hard and they deserve it. They had a slow start this morning, but eventually began putting all the pieces together.”
Lee, a three-time Rio Hondo League champion with a caché of other awards to her name, begins the title assault on Friday morning. After earning a pair of byes last week, she defeated Madelyn Tadd of Long Beach Wilson and Warren’s Victoria Recinos without surrendering a single set.
“Anessa is playing well and I look forward to seeing what she can do on Friday, Pereira said. “I am proud of all three. Each year during the introductions they say ‘you are the 16 best who have been assembled from the 500 schools in the Southern Section’ and I always think how special that is. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.”
