LOS GATOS Aptos High sophomore Kiana Safari, the repeat Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League singles champion, showed progress and met her goal of earning at least one win at the Central Coast Section Singles Championships at Bay Club Courtside on Wednesday. Safari beat Leigh senior Teagan Ngo, a third-time individual qualifier, 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the first round before falling to No. 2 Rachel Gee, a senior at Evergreen Valley, 6-0, 6-2, in the quarterfinals. “It just shows how much work I’ve put into the sport,” Safari said. “It show I put in more effort and it came out.” Safari became the first player from Santa Cruz County to win a CCS singles match since Santa Cruz’s Tallia Harper, now a senior on Cal State Northridge’s team, did so in 2021. Ngo, a left-hander, and Safari train against each other near daily under coach Long Phan in San Jose. They’re familiar with each other’s styles and engaged in several long rallies. “First set was so tough,” Safari said .”It was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.” Safari showed plenty of grit in her win. She rallied from a 15-40 hole on three straight unforced errors from Ngo to take a 6-5 lead in the first set, and after Ngo knotted up the score at 6-all, Safari rolled in the tiebreaker, hitting groundstrokes that Ngo was unable to control. Safari was forced to switch racquets during the tiebreaker after he string broke. “After the first set, I got such a confidence boost I started going for everything,” Safari said. Ngo was aggressive with her groundstrokes. Too much so. She hit six unforced errors in the tiebreaker. “I think she was trying to hit a little harder to get me on defense, so she could win the point,” Safari said. The second set went far more smoothly for Safari, who, admittedly, was playing with more confidence. That said, Safari said that she pretended like she lost the first set to help keep an aggressive mindset. “My strategy was to move people and play my game,” Safari said. “Because I just want to work on it, really.” Safari has had tough draws in both of her trips to the CCS singles tournament. As a freshman, she opened against No. 2 Pavith Khara of Harker and suffered a 6-3, 6-0 loss. This year, she faced another No. 2, but did so in the second round. Gee was more than a player with a fancy number next to her name, she’s the tournament’s defending champion. “It really shows me, if I could get there by the time I’m a senior, that would be really amazing,” said Safari, who aspires to play tennis in college, noting that Gee is a five-star recruit that has a scholarship to UC Irvine. Safari said Gee showed less power than Ngo, but was more consistent with here game. “She was so consistent, and fast. She got to everything and gave it back to me deep,” Safari said. “That was her strategy; I could tell. So I was like, ‘Attack. Attack. Attack.’ ” Gee also rolled in her first-round match and disposed of Chelsea Nguyen of Piedmont Hills, 6-3, 6-0. Monte Vista Christian sophomore Sofia Moore also competed and suffered a 6-0, 6-0 loss to powerful Aragon freshman Mia Lo in the first round. Lo lost to 6-1, 7-6 (8) to No. 3 Akina Ogawa of Palo Alto in the quarterfinals. Gee will face Ogawa in the semifinals at Bay Club Courtside on Thursday at noon. On the other side of the bracket, No. 1 Kayla Mitchell of Los Gatos faces No. 4 Anika Malik of Cupertino. The championship will also be held Thursday. The first two rounds of singles competition was originally scheduled to take place Monday. It was postponed due to inclement weather. The doubles competition will also be completed Thursday. In the semifinals at noon, No. 2 Lelani and Zoe Laruelle of Monta VIsta face their Matadors teammates, No. 3 Jillian Yang and Eva Tian, and No. 1 Jena Azmeh and Charlotte Weber of Sacred Heart Prep face No. 4 Megan Bence and Zoe Hendricks (Carlmont). Santa Cruz’s Francesca Garces and Julia Kennedy, the SCCAL doubles champion, suffered a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Aragon’s Shanay Biouk and Jessa Williams in the first round on Tuesday.
https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2025/11/19/aptos-sophomore-kiana-safari-earns-win-falls-in-qf-to-no-2-seed-ccs-girls-tennis/
Aptos sophomore Kiana Safari earns win, falls in QF to No. 2 seed | CCS girls tennis
