NCS Tennis Championships: Montgomery’s Marghi Andreassi reaches semifinals

Montgomery’s Marghi Andreassi swept her two opening day matches in straight sets at the NCS Tennis Singles Championship in Alamo and will face top-seeded Kaeli Thiel in the semifinals this morning.

A victory in that 10:30 a.m. match would send No. 4 seed Andreassi to the championship later today.

The sophomore was the only player from the Redwood Empire to make it to the second day of the two-day singles and doubles tournaments. All other players from the area lost in the opening round of Division?1 and Division 2.

At the Division 2 tournament, decided on the Santa Rosa High courts, Cardinal Newman’s doubles team of Anna Hartmann and Molly Wolmuth lost a three-set heartbreaker to the top-seeded duo of Jeanne Peabody and Frances Jacobson from Lick Wilmderding. The scores were 6-3, 6-7 (7-4) and 6-3.

“I’m proud of them,” Cardinals coach Tony Greco said. “The girls came out tight and it took them a while to get into the match, They played a good second set and tiebreaker and were confident going to the third set. I felt they didn’t play aggressive enough in the final set and that cost them.”

In that same bracket, Calistoga’s team of Elizabeth Pena and Veronica Acevedo were eliminated by Berean Christian’s duo of Jodie Bucholz and Gianna Nobili 6-0, 6-0.

St. Helena’s Natalie Stanton, the No. 2 seed in Division 2 singles, went out in the opening round 6-4, 6-2 to Lick Wilmerding’s Catherine Peabody.

Besides Andreassi, two other Empire players competed in Division 1 singles. Jade Wight was eliminated by Foothill’s Amber Huk 6-1, 6-1 while Casa Grande’s Satvika Madadi was defeated by Castro Valley’s Rachel Dong 6-1, 6-0.

In Division 1 doubles, Analy’s Quiana Stodder and Allegra Diamond stretched their match to three sets before losing to Heritage’s Erika Publico and Carolyn Buxton 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).

“My girls played great and had every opportunity to win,” Tigers coach Rick Passero said. “They didn’t find their best rhythm the entire match and still made it that close.”

Also in that doubles bracket, Casa Grande’s Julia O’Keeffe and Samveda Rukmangdhan played a competitive match but lost to Mission San Jose’s Jayashiri Viswanathan and Nicole Tran 6-4, 6-4.

Getting back to Division?1 singles and Andreassi, the Montgomery student had several anxious minutes when she fell behind in the second set to her first-round opponent Hannah Ross of Campolindo.

“The first set I was in the zone,” she said. “The second set I got tight and fell behind 1-4,” she said. “I took a mental break to regroup and was able to get the match to a tiebreaker. I won that pretty easy (7-2).

“My second opponent hit with a lot of pace but no topspin. She was a little inconsistent and I took advantage of that.”

Andreassi won her first-round match 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) and beat her second-round foe Pittsburg’s Ivy Hughes 6-2, 6-3.

Andreassi watched her top-seeded opponent in today’s semifinals play a few points.

“She’s really good,” Andreassi said. “She likes to build points and then wait for the chance to put the ball away. I’ll be trying to stop her from being successful at that. I’m looking forward to playing her.”