OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City and Mainland Regional girls tennis teams made it to the South Jersey semifinals, but both were knocked out of the sectional tournaments by the top two seeds Oct. 10.
That isn’t bad considering the Red Raiders and Mustangs came into the season with overhauled lineups, except for their seniors at first singles.
Mustang coach Eileen Fortis said at the start she had a “different look team” with everyone else either brand new to the varsity ladder or in a “totally” different position than last year.
Ocean City coach Tom Ballezzi had a young team, starting four sophomores.
Ocean City, the No. 4 seed in South Jersey Group III, beat No. 13 Lacey 5-0 in the opening round Sept. 30 and then knocked off No. 5 seed Cumberland on Oct. 8 in the quarterfinals.
Against Lacy, first singles Catherine Stempin, first doubles Annabelle Terruso and Anna Wisnefski and second doubles Sydney Halliday and Caitlin Grimley all won their matches without giving up a game.
Second singles Cecelia Mirsky won 6-1, 6-2 and third singles Samantha Savell won 6-0, 6-1.
Against Cumberland (14-4), Stempin won 6-2, 6-4, Savell won 7-5, 6-3, Terruso and Wisnefski took their match 6-1, 6-2 and second doubles Halliday and Grimley won 6-1, 6-0. Raider second singles Mirsky fell 6-0, 6-1.
On Oct. 10, the Raiders came up against No. 1 seed Shawnee (12-0) and all the Raiders players lost in straight sets. First doubles fared the best, winning three games.
Ocean City fell to 9-7 (4-6 Cape-Atlantic League) on the season.
Mainland, the No. 3 seed, beat No. 14 Absegami 5-0 in the opening round and followed that by beating Deptford, the No. 6 seed, 5-0, on Oct. 8, in the quarterfinals.
Against Absegami, first singles Christina Htay won 6-4, 6-3, second singles Marlee Campbell won 6-4, 7-5 and third singles Lily Turner won 6-0, 6-2.
First doubles Macenzie Campbell and Jessica Wise won 6-2, 6-0 and second doubles Daisy Turner and Dilana Erenier won 6-0, 6-3.
The Mustang girls actually had an easier time against Deptford.
Htay and the second doubles duo won without losing a game and first doubles Campbell and Wise lost only one game. Campbell won 6-2, 6-1. Third singles Rya Dabas had to go to a tiebreaker before winning 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8).
In the semifinals against No. 2 Clearview (16-2), all except second doubles lost in straight sets. Turner and Erenier lost their first set 4-6, stormed back to win the second set 6-0, then fell in a tight tiebreaker 11-9.
The Mustangs fell to 11-6 (6-3 Cape-Atlantic League) on the season.
Playoffs come early in the fall for high school tennis. Ocean City was scheduled to host Our Lady of Mercy Academy Oct. 15 before traveling to Cedar Creek Oct. 16. Mainland is traveling to EHT Oct. 18.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff