The focus Wednesday at the Foothill League girls tennis individual tournament rested on the league’s deep doubles lineups.
Twenty-four hours later, as play shifts to the semifinals and finals, all eyes will turn to standout singles players.
The top four seeds in singles met little resistance through first-round and quarterfinal matches Wednesday at the Paseo Club of Valencia.
Doubles was a different story.
West Ranch’s Emily Andrews and Audrey Kim defeated Valencia’s Vasvi Mongia and Ahanti Bommireddipalli, 4-6, 7-5, 12-10 (tiebreaker) in one quarterfinal. On a parallel court, in another quarter, Wildcats Brittany Waugh and Dani Hettinger beat Valencia’s Lindsey Gollom and Christina Fletcher in what was also a competitive bout.
No. 1 seed Cori Raffish and Quinterra Walter-Eze, of West Ranch, will face Kim and Andrews in one semifinal. The other pits Waugh and Hettinger against Valencia’s Taylor Cohen and Nicole Stefani.
“Today is about really tough matchups in doubles,” said West Ranch coach Dina McBride. “Amazing. Such depth in doubles.”
McBride’s daughter, Jordyn, won all her sets by 6-0 scores.
The four semifinalist in singles lost one game combined Wednesday.
McBride, the No. 1 seed, will face Saugus’ Megan Cho today, while Valencia’s Amanda Tabanera, the No. 2 seed, will take on West Ranch’s Nicole Alvarez.
Tabanera and Alvarez have known each other since they were children.
“She was probably my first tennis friend,” said Tabanera, who won the individual tournament doubles title last season.
Alvarez, then at Hart, pulled off the biggest upset of last season’s tournament, taking down previously unbeaten Canyon senior Katrina DeGuzman in the semis.
Alvarez lost to then-senior Natalia Munoz in the final.
Wednesday, the two finalists in singles and two finalists in doubles will advance to the CIF-Southern Section individual postseason.
