On the afternoon of Oct. 22, 2024, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) girls tennis team ventured to The Cate School (Cate) to participate in the Tri-Valley League finals. Out of the Dragons that competed, one doubles team advanced to the finals on Oct. 24, where they faced off against Cate, but unfortunately could not take home the win and advance to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) postseason.
The competition consisted of a bracket style tournament with the top two doubles and singles teams in the Tri Valley League. In this way, the nature of the competition is more individualized on each singles athlete or doubles team.
On the singles side, Saanvi Joshi ‘26 faced off against an athlete from Laguna Blanca High School (Laguna Blanca). After fierce competition, that went to a supertiebreaker, Laguna Blanca ended up on top with a final score of 7-8 and Joshi was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Jaylenne Aguire ‘28 also competed for Foothill Tech in the singles matches where she won her first round against The Thacher School (Thacher), 7-5. After winning in the qualifiers, Aguire moved onto the quarterfinals where she was defeated by her opponent from Laguna Blanca.
One of Foothill Tech’s doubles teams, Ryan Alderman ‘25 and Violet Polley ‘26, faced off against a duo from Villanova High School (Villanova) in the qualifiers. After an 8-4 triumph, the duo progressed to the quarterfinals. In the next round they faced off against a doubles team from Cate where Alderman and Polley suffered a loss 1-8 and were thus eliminated from the competition.
Vivian Ryan ‘25 and Julia Geib ‘25 were Foothill Tech’s other doubles team competing in the tournament. The duo was pitted against two athletes from Villanova where they defeated them, 8-3. They then moved on to the semifinal round where, instead of playing a pro-set, they played two standard sets and defeated a team from Cate with scores of 6-4 and 6-3. Because of these wins, Ryan and Geib qualified to play in the finals on Oct. 24.
Ryan commented on her expectations and performance of her and her partner, Geib, “we had a good amount of confidence coming in … and I think we played really well together.”
On the second day of competition, Ryan and Geib competed against the line one doubles duo from Cate. The pressure was on, as Foothill was the reigning doubles champion for the last two years and the runners-up the year before. After the competition ended, the duo couldn’t come away with the win, posting final scores of 3-6, 2-6, and placing second overall. However, because they took second, Ryan and Geib will be progressing into CIF individuals.
The Dragons ended their tennis season with an overall record of 2-10 and a league record of 1-7.
