Guinard’s semifinal appearance paces DHS tennis

For the Davis High girls tennis team, the best thing that came out of the Sac-Joaquin Section individual championships Thursday and Friday was a chance to face a high level of competition.

Coming off of a Delta Valley Conference season that hardly requires them to break a sweat each year, the Blue Devils got a look at the caliber of competition they will see as they get deeper into the team playoffs.

“It’s eye-opening for them to come to a section tournament with all the top players from the various leagues,” said DHS coach Sally Hosley. “We don’t see this caliber of players in our league, so it’s shocking when you look at all the matches and everyone is a good player. It’s actually refreshing to see so many competitive matches.”

The tournament continues Monday at home against Rocklin (2 p.m.), but on Friday, it was Inés Guinard’s appearance in the semifinals that highlighted the Devils’ showing at the Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville.

Guinard, seeded first after reaching the finals of the event last season, cruised through her first two matches losing just one game in four sets against Taylor Barajas and Symone Jacques. But her ride came to end in the semis when Jessica Josiah of St. Francis pulled off a 7-5, 6-1 upset.

Cat Paw U, Davis’ other singles competitor, fell to No. 2 seed Tori Trylovich in the first round of singles competition.

In doubles action, Blue Devils Ceci Cajandig and Kailynn Yang were seeded second and leading in the third set of their opening match 5-1, before an upset-minded duo from Tracy stormed back for the win.

Kelly Chuck and Bailey Gary, the other DHS duo, got a tough draw and lost in the first round to the tournament’s top seed.

Still, with the more important team competition still to play out, Hosley was proud of the Devils’ effort:

“Overall, the girls played great. Now we can focus on Monday’s section match against Rocklin.”