Clovis North girls fall in section tennis. But there’s still a team title to be had

Clovis North girls carried the Fresno-area banner as the Central Section girls tennis individual tournament finished Saturday at Redwood High.

The Clovis North doubles team of Fiona Yao and Jordan Pickett, seeded second, lost in the final to No. 1 Alexsia Drulias and Jackie Sala of Garces 6-4, 6-3. It was Pickett’s second straight section runner-up finish.

Clovis North junior Mercedes Garcia, seeded No. 4 in singles, lost to No. 1 Delanie Dunkle of Arroyo Grande 6-2, 6-3 in the Saturday morning semifinals. Garcia fell in the semis last year, too.

Yao and Picket beat the No. 3 seeds, Stockdale’s Greta Kruger and Kierstin Anderson, 7-6, 6-0 in the semifinals. Yao won the final point of the first-set tiebreacker in a rally that lasted nearly a minute.

Dunkle had dropped just two games all tournament before meeting Garcia, who kept the pressure on winning the first three games of the second set before Dunkle rallied.

“I played against her two months ago, and coming into this I just wanted to take more games than before,” Garcia said, noting that Dunkle had become a more consistent player since their last meeting. Dunkle won that 6-1, 6-2 on Aug. 31 during a dual meet in Arroyo Grande.

Garcia retired from the third-place match after Redwood’s Claire Yang won the first set 6-2.

Dunkle beat her second-seeded sister, Peyton, 6-3, 6-1 in the singles final.

Many of the girls now turn their attention to the section team championships. And since Clovis North beat Arroyo Grande 5-4 in that Aug. 31 dual, the Broncos host AG in Tuesday’s Division I final .