Girls Tennis: Marshall Rallies Late, But Falls Short To Monrovia, 10-8

By the time the Marshall girls three singles players swept their third and final round of opponents, visiting Monrovia had already clinched the match with the needed 10 victories.

But Grace Warren, Michelle Ionescu and Melodie Ahn closed out the afternoon on a high note as Marshall fell to visiting Monrovia, 10-8.

Warren was the only Marshall player who won all three of her matches, as Ionescu went 1-2 and Ahn was 2-1 on Thursday in the nonleague showdown.

Ahn’s only loss of the day came in a first-match tiebreaker to Monrovia’s Naomi Segerquist, 5-7.

Marshall dropped five of its first six matches (first two rounds) which allowed the Wildcats to clinch the victory early.

Christine Atamian and partner Alina Bayrakdarian, the Marshall No. 3 team, won a first-match victory over Monrovia’s Lianna Fritz and Jenna Seright, 6-1 to account for the only doubles victory in the first two rounds.

Marshall will begin league play in two weeks and coach Kevin Strotz says Rosemead and Arroyo are the teams to beat.

“I don’t think their (Marshall girls) heads were in the game and I think they’d admit that,” Strotz said. “We made mistakes that we don’t normally make, but we’ll fix those and get better.