Crean Lutheran girls tennis team celebrates program’s first CIF championship

Crean Lutheran players with Coach Patrick Young after winning the CIF title. (Photo courtesy Crean Lutheran Athletics).

It’s been a great week for Crean Lutheran’s varsity girls tennis players and coaches who celebrated the program’s first CIF title Friday.

Crean Lutheran, coached by Patrick Young, defeated Oxford Academy 11-7 in the CIF Division 4 finals to bring home the title.

“It was an amazing season and so happy that the players got to experience this as winning a CIF championship does not happen very often to any team,” Crean Lutheran Coach Patrick Young said this week.

Crean Lutheran (16-8) defeated San Dimas 14-4 in the semifinals.

In the finals, the Saints went up 7-3 and needed to reach 10 points to earn the win. Crean Lutheran won the final three sets to clinch the title.

The doubles team of Mag Sun and Kelsey Sawtell, as well as Veronica Barber, will compete next week in the individuals CIF tournament. 

“Our girls tennis program has come such a long way, from seven seasons ago when we had only 10 players in total with me reaching out to softball/basketball players to just have enough numbers to now, with close to 40 student athletes, two teams (varsity/JV and likely adding a frosh/soph team next season,” Young added.

“Making it to CIF playoffs the past four seasons, never getting out of the wild card rounds until this year.    We won our first Empire League title this year so it was definitely a historic season for this team. So proud of the growth of our tennis program and we always play for His glory.”

The finals match was close at the start.

“There are 18 total sets played in the match; the first team to reach 10 sets wins or if it is tied at 9-9 in sets won, then it goes to game count where the team with the most total games would prevail,” Young said.

“In the third round of the championship match with the score 8-7 in sets, we had three matches ongoing so either team could win at that point. Our number two singles player (Grace Choi) was playing the Oxford number one, she was down 2-5, but fought back to even the score at 5-5 and eventually won the match in a tiebreaker (7-6) which secured the victory for our team since we were ahead in game count.  

“Our number one singles (Veronica Barber) and number one doubles team (Mag Sun/Kelsey Sawtell) swept all three rounds which was huge for the team and will continue their excellent play in CIF individuals at Marina High School (which starts on Monday).”

Young added a team effort contributed to the title.

”I do think this was a complete team win as our 14 players, from our nine starters to our five Super Saints really played a part in such a positive team dynamic,” he said.

“Saints Athletics congratulates Coach Young and our Saints girls tennis team on winning the D4 CIF Southern Section CIF Championship,” added Crean Lutheran Athletic Director Eric Olson.

“May the glory, praise and all the thanks go to God as it was a year of Saints girls tennis program firsts: first league championship in school history, and first CIF championship in school history. This group is special, a team that exceeded its potential. The girls were humble and hard-working, they were so much fun to watch as they gained confidence in one another and themselves.”

Crean Lutheran High School contributed to this story.