Following No. 1 Catalina Foothills High School’s championship match, junior Grant Cohen recalled that people thought the Falcons were beatable, despite them earning the singles and doubles tennis titles on Monday and winning every team championship since 2014.
So this afternoon, Cohen and his teammates made sure to prove the doubters wrong with an 5-0 victory over No. 3 Estrella Foothills that gave Catalina Foothills its eighth consecutive Division II title.
“The win definitely cements us as the top team,” Cohen said, “and continuing the legacy.”
The Falcons’ top three singles players — junior and Division II singles winner Jared Perry, Cohen and his brother Austin, the division doubles winners — set the tone with 6-0, 6-0 victories, while Jason Jia, Nico Barrutia-Pierson and Santiago Lietzau helped clinch the title.
Head coach Jeffrey Bloomberg credited his team’s fast start to a strong overall performance, which is promising for the future since the entire starting roster returns next year.
Bloomberg inserted three new players into the lineup this season, which paid off well as the Falcons allowed just 12 total games across Saturday’s matches and one point during its playoff run.
Catalina Foothills’ title clinched the team’s first undefeated season (17-0) since 2019.
“I definitely think we’re going to try to be right back,” Cohen said. “Get it again. Go for two.”
The Falcons boys capped another state title and completed a perfect season with a 5-0 win Saturday.
Division II girls
In each of Catalina Foothills’ last three team state titles, the No. 1 Falcons won 5-0 to clinch the championship before doubles competition.
That changed Saturday, as the Falcons led 4-2 after singles play. But concern couldn’t be found in coach Daniel Root and his players. Instead, they radiated confidence.
“Our doubles team is the defending state champion,” Root said. “They were going to win this match. I had 100%, a million confidence in them. We’ve just got super strong doubles teams.”
He was right, as Catalina Foothills clinched their fourth straight state championship following the retirement of one of No. 3 Arcadia’s top doubles team. According to Arcadia head coach Brian Corte, one of the players was suffering “significant, repeated cramping” and as a result, the tandem made the decision to retire and “not risk physical injury.”
Reigning Division II doubles champions Abbigail Mulick and Sophia Silverman, along with Serena Hsu and Morgan Filer, won their singles matches in dominant fashion, giving up just six games collectively. Hsu defeated her opponent, Ashley Cowley, 6-0, 6-0.
However, both Emily Flowers and Adele Fereres lost their singles contests. Flowers, committed to play college tennis at Xavier, fell to reigning state singles champion Vessa Turley, who beat her on Monday in the state singles title match.
“Me and the whole team had the same energy when I lost that match as who cares that I lost, it doesn’t matter,” said Flowers, who lost in three sets. “We are still up four matches to two and we are going to go into doubles and we are going to win.”
They did just that, something that Hsu believes will impact the future of the program.
“It’s a great moment that will go down in history,” she said. “I feel like it’s going to inspire other people because today was a really hard match. The fact that we’re resilient and we kept pushing and we were being really strong I think is going to inspire future Catalina Foothills players to strive for that legacy that we always have.”
