Competitive effort at NCS

Three Warriors take part in tennis NCS Championships

Del Norte High girls tennis players Kathryn Gustafson, Taylor Cleland and Sam Bausch pose at the Northcoast Section Division II Championships in Fortuna on Tuesday While all three held tough, Gustafson lost in the first round of singles and Bausch and Cleland lost in the first round in doubles. Photo courtesy of Jeff Gustafson

In singles, Warrior Kathryn Gustafson lost to Talia Cioth of International High of Oakland 6-7,(4-7), 1-6.

In doubles play, Sam Bausch and Taylor Cleland fell to the No. 1-seeded doubles pair of Ashley Shuster and Aubrey Douglass of Piedmont, 6-4, 6-1.

Head coach Sara Miller said that in both matches the Warriors kept things close in the first set, which she was quite proud of.

Heading into the NCS, Gustafson had not lost a game this season as she handily won the No. 1 singles seed bracket at the Humboldt-Del Norte Conference Championships.

Coming from a small, rural community that the competition knew little about, Gustafson was the overwhelming underdog but stunned Cioth by taking a 5-3 advantage in the first set.

“I think she took her opponent by surprise,” Miller said. “Kathryn came out and played really well.”

Cioth battled back and tied things up 6-6 and the set went into a tiebreaker, which she won 7-4.

In the second set, while Gustafson continued to battle, Cioth was able to dominate the majority of the way for the 6-1 victory. Cioth was undefeated coming in, Miller said.

While Gustafson was disappointed in how she played in the second set, Miller thought that she played well and added she was proud of all Gustafson has accomplished in her senior year.

In doubles, Bausch, a senior, and Cleland, a junior, started off strongly, going up 2-1 against the top-seeded doubles pair.

“It was back and forth between the two teams,” Miller said. “They were able to keep up with them in the first set.”

The Piedmont team battled back and took the first set 6-4 and the second set 6-1 to move on to the next round.

Miller commended Bausch and Cleland, who only had a short time to get used to each other’s playing styles.

Normally, Gustafson plays No. 1 doubles, but because she won the HDN singles title she could not compete.

“Both girls played really awesome,” Miller said.  She said they returned some great volleys and deep slice shots and served the ball well. This included Bausch earning two service aces in a row.

It was the first time in several years that an HDN school has hosted an NCS tennis event. This meant Del Norte did not have to make the normally long trek to the Bay Area for NCS.

Last year, Bausch and Gustafson won their first round match in NCS doubles, the first time in school history a tennis team had won in the NCS. They went on to take fourth place in NCS Division II doubles.

Playing on their home court, the Fortuna doubles pair of Angie Gearhart and Risa Balcom upset the No. 2-seeded team of Jacqueline Payne and Francey Behmke of Cardinal Newman, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

The Fortuna pair lost in the second round on Tuesday. They finished in fourth place after losing the third place match Wednesday afternoon.

Bausch and Cleland lost in the HDN finals to Gearhart and Balcom, but received an at-large berth to the NCS.