Mirjam Swanson
GLENDALE -- Odds and ends from the local girls' tennis scene:
She's not messing around: Already, after less than a month at
Crescenta Valley High, sophomore Hana Im -- along with her twin sister,
Nara -- has started stringing together what feels like a legacy.
This week alone, Hana ran her set record to 19-0.
She did, however, show a glimmer of vulnerability, actually dropping
six games along the way.
Yeah, yeah, so those games were surrendered during Monday's match
against Burbank, specifically against senior Olga Yepremian, who was
arguably the general area's best girls' player before Im arrived.
Im, who was strategically placed in CV's No. 3 singles spot, won what
had the increasingly anticipated set against Burbank's No. 1 player in a
tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5).
A day later, the Falcon left-hander handed Arcadia's top player,
senior Kathleen Yee, her first Pacific League loss in three seasons. Im
even went so far as to blank the Apache standout, 6-0 -- although the set
was tougher than shown by the score.
Add Im's play to the exploits of her Falcon teammates -- which are
also awfully impressive -- and it's no surprise that CV has started the
year, 7-0, 1-0 in league, thereby extending its regular-season winning
streak to 31 straight.
Young Spartan not messing around, either: While Hana Im keeps striding
ahead at CV, La Canada's (4-1) newest addition, Ina Dan, is also making
her mark. After five matches, the freshman is 12-2.
Too hot: Compounding all the normal pressures of a match early this
week -- the opposition across the net, the tension of a rivalry, the
pressure of starting league play -- was some serious heat.
Stifling weather that consistently reached into the upper 90s and had
players drinking bottle after bottle of water to stay as hydrated and
energized as possible for three full sets.
"How hot is it?" Flintridge Prep No. 3 singles player Tiffany Kim
asked during Monday's match against Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy. "Hot
enough that it should be illegal to play tennis -- or any other sport for
that matter -- in weather like this. Any time that someone just keels
over, it's too hot."
(Kim's first-round opponent in the Rebels' nonleague match had to
forfeit her three sets after succumbing to the heat, before recovering
later.)
"I mean, heck," Kim said, "it's really hot."
