Tennis team closes strong season

By Hector Trujillo

After convincing victories over Coronado High School and Francis Parker High School in the 2025 CIF-San Diego Section Girls Tennis Championship playoffs, the Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) womens varsity tennis team fell in the semifinals to La Jolla High School on Oct. 30.

The Lady Falcons finished the regular season with a number 11 ranking in San Diego County, led by the efforts of the top-ranked player in the state, Surabhi Raghavendra. Raghavendra is a junior tennis player who competes in the girls’ U-16 tournaments and is part of the class of 2028 at Scripps Ranch High School – training mostly at the Steve Adamson Tennis Academy.

“I think we did better this year,” said SRHS head coach Karyn McCartney. “They worked really hard and gave it their all.”

The team also got impressive performances from several other players including senior Vanessa Ho, who
came up with big wins against very tough competition both in regular and post-season play.

Fellow seniors Peyton Thai, Valerie Pham and Vidita Bandi also helped the team come up with huge victories which included comebacks where sets appeared almost lost.

“We have to keep grinding and keep working on mental toughness and repetition,” McCartney said. “I have a great group of kids, but we just have to work a little bit harder on the mental toughness and drills.”

Scripps Ranch High won the 2021 CIF-SDS Girls Tennis Team Division 1 Championships as a third seed at Barnes Tennis Center in Ocean Beach. It was the team’s first championship in 28 years, and this is McCartney’s fifth year at the helm.

The individual CIF playoff tournament started on Monday, Nov. 3, with Cherine Nazareno and Harshita Arora coming out victorious in day one but being eliminated the following day in the quarterfinal round.