Seniors Win CCS Doubles Championship
Seniors Juliette Martin and Carina Burdick (left and right) pose for a photo with head coach Hung Nguyen (center) after winning the CCS doubles title. The win was the pinnacle of the girls’ four-year varsity tennis careers. Photo courtesy of Carina Burdick.
In their final game playing for the Eagles, seniors Carina Burdick and Juliette Martin crushed their opponents, taking first out of 16 teams in the CCS doubles Championship. The pair went into the tournament with a record of 8-0. The competition took place at Bay Club Courtside in Los Gatos on Tuesday, December 1.
“It was a feeling of relief and joy” Carina said. “We were confident going into the final match and it was a great way to end our high school career together.”
In the opening round of the tournament, the duo won both sets 6-1, 6-1. The quarter final match was another clean win of 6-0, 6-1. Play was suspended for a week due to impending weather conditions, but when it resumed, the pair dominated semi-finals, winning 6-0, 6-2. After that, they went on to win the finals 6-2, 6-1 over Pamela Duke and Elizabeth Schick of Harker.
It was the end of a long run of success for Carina and Juliette. Both made the varsity team as freshmen, and they began to play — and dominate — as a doubles pair as sophomores.
“I think that our doubles games have improved a lot since when we first decided we wanted to play CCS doubles about 2 years ago” Juliette said. “Being good doubles players is what really allowed us to dominate in both SCVALS and CCS.”
Carina and Juliette began playing doubles together in sophomore year. The following year, Juliette was injured which prevented them from playing together as juniors.
The two were going strong together coming into their junior season, but Juliette encountered injury problems that looked troublesome for their chances. However, she was able to play through the pain, and was good to go by this year.
“I had shin splints for most of [last] season so I decided to [mostly] play doubles this year so I wouldn’t have to run a lot and play tough matches,” Juliete said. “This allowed me to be fully healthy by the time CCS came around.”
With Juliette back on the court, the duo had little problem ending their careers in the best possible way.
“We had planned to play CCS doubles since sophomore year” Carina said. “Juliette getting injured junior year wasn’t part of the plan, but we did come into the season with the goal of staying healthy and competing [to win] CCS together as our last hurrah for high school tennis.”
