Portola girls tennis tops Santa Margarita to earn spot in CIF-SS Open Division final

IRVINE — For the Portola and Santa Margarita girls tennis teams, reaching the CIF-SS Open Division semifinals was a first for both schools.

The Bulldogs, the No. 2 seed in the Open Division, defeated the No. 3 seed Eagles, 10-8, Wednesday at Portola High, and now advance to an even higher plateau – a berth in CIF-SS finals.

Portola (21-0) will play top-seeded Palos Verdes (22-0) for the Open Division championship at 5:15 p.m. Friday at the University of Redlands.

The Sea Kings defeated No. 4 Corona del Mar, 14-4, in the other semifinal Wednesday.

Portola (19-1) was ahead 7-5 heading into third round of matches, and once the Bulldogs won their ninth set, they clinched the victory, even if the match would have ended in a 9-9 tie, Bulldogs coach Natacia Schottland said.

“I knew if we could get to nine, we would win in games,” said Schottland, who has been the Bulldogs’ only coach since the school opened nine years ago.

Portola’s No. 2 doubles team of Jiah Lee and Leanna Roman and No. 3 doubles team of Sahana Chakravarthy and Imani Shah made a significant contribution, with both tandems sweeping their three sets.

In a set that needed a tiebreaker to decide, No.1 singles player Kylie Nguyen lost against the Eagles No. 1 player Grace Kersenbrock.

But Nguyen went on to win her next two sets.

“For me personally, I kind of came into the match hoping I’m the same level as this girl,” Nguyen said “I (knew) I can get close with her. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, but I channeled that inner fire in me to do well in the next two matches. There’s definitely a bunch of tough players out there. I’m so proud of my team for putting in the work.”

Santa Margarita (23-2) was competing in the Open Division playoffs for the first time.

The Bulldogs last won a section title in 2019 when they beat Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks for the Division 3 championship.

Since then, the Bulldogs had been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, including losing in the first round of the Open Division last season.

“So, this year was historic,” Schottland said. “We went through the first round and now we’ve gone through semis. And so now it’s up to the final match, but it’s an accomplishment in and of itself.”