Falcons take down Tigers, 16-2

LA CRESCENTA — Perhaps in a hurry to speed to the finish line of a busy week jam-packed with matches, the members of the Crescenta Valley High girls' tennis team made quick work of visiting South Pasadena on Wednesday afternoon.

Singles domination paved the way for an easy 16-2 nonleague win, as the Falcons improved to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in their gauntlet of four matches in as many days.

"With such a big league and such little time, it's tough to get everybody in," Crescenta Valley Coach Sarah Wiggins said. "We only have one [match] next week, so we'll get a little relief and a little bit of practice and take the information we got from all these games and see what we can do."

The Falcons dropped just six games in singles play on Wednesday, with Karen Ataian going a perfect 6-0 across the board out of the No. 2 slot. No. 1 Emily Borkowski swept, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0, and Jackie Dilanchyan went 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

"The singles did a pretty good job," Wiggins said.

The lone highlight for the Tigers (3-4) came from No. 3 doubles Brianna Lou and Mei Chung, as the duo posted two wins, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

"They're a good team, they've got good singles players," South Pasadena Coach Ron Machuca said of Crescenta Valley. "We didn't come out to compete. My girls didn't feel like coming to play today, so we didn't play that great. Can we play better? Yeah, we can."

In doubles, Wiggins was without usual No. 2 Viktoriya Shumakova (illness) but was able to rearrange some successful combinations while also subbing liberally.

In the No. 1 slot, Amanda Lockwood and Sydney Farzadkish won, 6-3, while Sarah Yaghoubi and Sally Jo posted a 6-2 win in the second round.

Sarah Oh teamed with Christine Garapetian, normally the No. 3 singles, to sweep, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, and Michelle Choi and Alice Nam won a pair of sets in the No. 3 slot, 6-3, 6-2.

"[Shumakova] was gone, so I took the opportunity to experiment a little bit and I got to see some good things," Wiggins said. "I think I learned some stuff I'm going to use, so that was nice. That's what these games are for.

"All my subs got to play today, so that's a good day."

Crescenta Valley concludes its busy week with a resumption of league play against Burroughs today.

"Hopefully, we will match up well with them and get the win," Wiggins said.