First published in the Dec. 9 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
La Cañada High School senior Eliana Hanna and junior Tsehay Driscoll defeated Aliso Niguel High of Aliso Viejo in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, in the championship match to capture the CIF Individuals Doubles Tournament title at Whittier Narrows Tennis Club last Thursday.
“They were expected to win,” LCHS head coach Will Moravec said. “They were incredibly happy, but they expected to win, so it was more like, ‘We have a job to do and we want to get it done.’ And when they won it, they were like, ‘Job done.’”
It marks the first girls’ doubles championship in school history. Former LCHS stars Susan Almassy and Ann Feely were the 1971 CIF Tournament’s runner-up duo, losing in the final to Corona del Mar High of Newport Beach 50 years ago. Meanwhile, the LCHS boys’ tandem of Parker Collins and David Willwerth won the CIF-SS boys’ doubles title in 1996 by defeating Etiwanda High of Rancho Cucamonga.
Hanna and Driscoll, the top-seeded team, breezed through the competition, defeating Arcadia (6-1, 6-2) in the semifinals and Rolling Hills Estates’ Peninsula High in the quarterfinals (6-4, 6-0). The Spartan pair had received a first-round bye before defeating Tustin Foothill High, 6-0, 6-1, last Wednesday.
“It feels really amazing to be able to represent my school and playing doubles was also really special because I’ve known [Driscoll] for a really long time and it was really special to win it with her,” Hanna said. “These past couple years that I’ve been on the tennis team has been really special to me because we had a group of girls that have been training their whole lives just like me.”
Hanna, a senior, has committed to continuing her tennis and academic careers at Washington University in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Driscoll is expected to return to LCHS for her senior season.
