GIRLS STATE: Tiebreaker win gives Gorman fifth straight crown

In Michelle Shoen’s four years at Bishop Gorman, the girls tennis team never had lost a match.

The Gaels senior wasn’t about to let the streak be broken Friday in the state championship.

Shoen and doubles partner Amanda Silvestri rebounded from dropping their three sets to win a crucial tiebreaker game, lifting the unbeaten Gaels to their fifth consecutive girls tennis title with a 10-9 win over Liberty (17-1) at Darling Tennis Center.

The teams tied at 9-9 and went to six 12-point tiebreakers to decide the match. Each team won three, but Gorman (17-0) won more points (33) than did the Patriots (30) in the tiebreaker and won the match.

“I have a tendency to get angry if things go wrong, so I walked into the tiebreaker calm and collected, and it ended up working,” said Shoen, who teamed with Silvestri to beat Liberty’s Sarah Lucas and Sina Gebrai 8-6 in their tiebreaker. “When it was over, I just cried.”

Gorman’s Anita Lee and Sarah Bessen easily won their tiebreakers, 7-2 and 7-1, respectively. With Liberty’s Danae Ingwaldson winning 7-3, and the Patriots’ doubles teams of Ashley Wao-Udin and Valerie Nesenhoener, and Aphrah Brokaw and Erika De Los Santos each claiming 7-4 tiebreakers, Shoen and Silvestri had to win their tiebreaker for the Gaels to keep the title.

“We didn’t really feel any pressure,” Silvestri said. “We told each other, 'Just play.’ ”

Consecutive winners to end the tiebreaker were the difference.

Shoen and Silvestri won only five games in their first three sets Friday, including losing 6-0 to Wao-Udin and Nesenhoener in the final round.

“Michelle lives and dies with this,” Gorman coach Gordon Hammond said. “It’s sweet that it came down to their tiebreaker and they came through.

“It’s not the way to decide a state title, though, on points in a tiebreaker. It’s a (expletive) way to decide it.”

Still, an impressive streak stays alive. The Gaels haven’t lost a match since falling to Bonanza in the Sunset Region final on Oct. 11, 2005. Gorman bounced back to win the state title 10 days later —  in a tiebreaker ... on points. It was the first of the current string of five straight crowns.

“It’s exciting,” Shoen said about never losing as a team. “We knew it would be a little tougher this year. We just went through the season knowing we had a tough road ahead of us.”

Lee and Bessen each went 3-0 in singles for Gorman, which won eight of the nine singles points in regulation. Taylor Larreau was 2-1 in singles.

The Patriots’ doubles teams put Liberty in position to pull off the upset, winning eight of their nine points.

Wao-Udin and Nesenhoener, and Brokaw and De Los Santos each went 3-0, and Lucas and Gebrai were 2-1 for Liberty, which appeared in its first state final.

“My girls played their hearts out and left everything they had on the court,” Liberty coach Kih Gourrier said. “It’s tough to be in this position. Gorman just stepped it up when it was their time. They have a great team.”