Eldorado outlasts Canyon Springs in girls tennis

Rochelle Casino raised her arms in exultation.

Her Eldorado girls tennis teammates proceeded to mob her on Canyon Springs’ courts Thursday.

It didn’t feel like a regular-season match. But then, most regular-season matches don’t last 4 hours, 10 minutes.

Casino edged Christian Earl, 6-4, to clinch a tiebreaker and give unbeaten Eldorado a 10-9 Northeast League victory over Canyon Springs. The Sundevils won four sets in the tiebreaker to Canyon Springs’ two.

“That was really exciting, and I was glad that they were cheering me on because I gained more confidence,” Casino said.

Casino, one of six returning senior starters for the Sundevils, avenged a 7-6 (3) loss to Earl prior to the tiebreaker. She also lost a 7-6 (6) heartbreaker to Joy Jones.

“She must have played a good two and a half hours today, and that was just in two sets,” Eldorado coach Jesse Medellin said of Casino.

In his 11th year as head coach of the Sundevils, Medellin said he never has been involved in a longer match.

“With the sun going down, I was actually kind of concerned that we weren’t going to be able to get it in and we’d have to suspend it,” he said.

Casino’s heroics were all Eldorado (6-0, 2-0 Northeast) could salvage in singles.

The Sundevils, though, got tiebreaker wins in doubles from Dyana Sanchez and Gabriella Kinney, Jackie Hernandez and Saira Mendez and Maria Guanlao and Bryanna Gabrillo.

All three Eldorado doubles tandems went 3-0 prior to the tiebreaker.

“I think our doubles teams could have done better to not get us in a tiebreak,” Canyon Springs coach Cheryl Dameron said.

Canyon Springs (2-2, 1-1) lost a tiebreaker for the second time this season, having fallen 10-9 at Shadow Ridge on Sept. 4.

“It seems to be our habit,” Dameron said of getting into tiebreakers.

Sophomore Rebecca Breland led the Pioneers at No. 1 singles, winning all three of her matches. Canyon Springs also got sweeps from Jones, a junior, and Earl, a freshman.

“I’m very excited for them,” Dameron said of her young singles standouts. “I think we have a very strong singles team. There’s a possibility they could go to state.”

As for the Sundevils, Medellin wouldn’t have had the final tiebreaker point go to anyone other than Casino.

“I was just glad that she had the opportunity to do it,” he said. “If I could pick anybody on the team, that’s the one I would pick to go out there and play it.”