Blue Devils win first five matches to clinch a finals spot

On Tuesday, Davis High girls tennis coach Sally Hosley was feeling better and better as the results started rolling in.

First, there was the Blue Devils’ three doubles teams — all winners to put DHS up 3-0.

Then, when singles players No. 2 Cat Paw U and No. 5 Angela Donahue came off the court with smiles on their faces, Hosley knew her Devils were moving on to Wednesday’s Sac-Joaquin Section finals.

When it was all said and done on Tuesday, the locals had defeated host Oak Ridge, 6-3, in the section semifinals.

It was Davis’ second win over the Trojans this season, the other a 7-2 victory on Sept. 13.

“This was an amazing win for the girls!” an excited Hosley said afterward. “It’s hard going into a match thinking you should win since you beat them earlier in the season. Much easier being the underdog.

“I reminded the girls before the match that they deserved to be on the courts (Tuesday) because they earned their spot in the semis. They have played hard all season to get to this point. (Tuesday), their job was to brush away their nerves and to play with their hearts — and they most certainly did.”

The huge initial boost from the doubles teams may have been the key as all three Blue Devil duos finished off their Oak Ridge opponents in straight sets.

At No. 1, Kelly Chuck and Bailey Gary teamed up to win, 6-1, 6-1, with Eliana Jolkovsy/Megan Ewens battling for a 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 victory at No. 2. The No. 3 team of Jasmin Mould and Cat Archer posted a 6-1, 6-2 win.

“All of our doubles were stellar,” Hosley said. “There were great performances up and down the ladder.”

In singles, the early wins came from Paw U, who defeated Rachel Librach, 6-2, 6-0, and Donahue, who was a 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) victor.

Kailynn Yang had the other DHS singles triumph — coming back after dropping the first set to win in a third-set tiebreaker — but Devil No. 1 Inés Guinard almost joined her. Guinard took down Tori Trylovich 6-4 in the first set, then dropped the second, 7-5, before Trylovich won a tiebreaker, 10-8.

“Kailynn fought back after losing the first set and won the next two; she played incredible,” Hosley said. “Both Ceci (Cajandig) and Jenna (Mould) lost tough matches and Ines lost a third-set tie-breaker, 10-8, which could have gone either way. She basically lost the match by just two points.”

Davis is right back on the court Wednesday for the section championship match against top-seeded Granite Bay. The matchup begins at 2 p.m. at Ronald Feist Park in Folsom.

The two teams played back in August in the Best of Sacramento Tournament, with the Grizzlies winning 8-1. That day, however, three sets went to tie-breakers and the match was decided by about 10 key points.