By Pete Borello

Teammates Lea and Pelea lose to St. Francis duo in semifinals

Prep Girls Tennis Playoffs

Another Central Coast Section final, another tough loss for Lejla Hodzic.

The Pinewood School sophomore fell in straight sets to York’s Saskia Nauenberg Nov. 20 in the singles championship of the CCS individual tennis tournament.

Second-seeded Nauenberg, a junior, beat top-seeded Hodzic 6-3, 6-2 at Courtside Club in Los Gatos.

Hodzic, who lost 6-4, 6-4 to Los Altos’ Lena Sherbakov in the 2000 final, went into last week’s match as the clear favorite. Hodzic had not lost a match all season and had beaten Nauenberg in a tournament earlier this year.

But Hodzic was healthy back then.

This time, the lanky Bosnian had to play with a lingering shoulder injury that had forced her to serve underhand for most of the CCS team playoffs.

Although she served overhand for most of the singles final, Pinewood assistant coach Whitney Wood said Hodzic still wasn’t herself.

“You could tell she was just tired - mentally and physically,” Wood said. “She was missing shots and making too many errors. I think it was because of all the matches she’s played, especially over the last three weeks.”

Hodzic led the Panthers to the CCS team final, where they lost to powerhouse Menlo Nov. 14, beating all her opponents in straight sets.

Pinewood moved on to the Northern California team playoffs that weekend and Hodzic posted a 3-0 record in that event.

The CCS individual tournament started two days later, with Hodzic winning three straight-set matches to reach the final against Nauenberg.

“Lejla was very upset, Wood said of the final loss. “But she had a great season and was such an inspiration to the entire team and to me.”

Hodzic wasn’t the only Pinewood player competing in the CCS tournament, as Paula Lea and Mele Pelea qualified for the doubles event.

The fourth-seeded pair lost to St. Francis’ Laura Boskovich-Megan Kawahara in the semifinals by a 6-1, 6-1 score.

Lea-Pelea then dropped the third-place match to Menlo-Atherton’s Lindsay Hughes-Hillary Englert 6-1, 6-4.

“I thought they played well,” Wood said of the Pinewood duo. “They started off kind of slow, then started to put it together. If they had a little more energy in the beginning, they might have done better. But I think they were happy to get as far as they did.”

Beside No. 2 Boskovich-Kawahara, who lost 6-0, 6-0 to Menlo’s Ashley Lipton-Tiffany Lee in the doubles final, St. Francis was represented by singles player Stephanie Schnitter. Seeded fourth, she lost to Nauenberg 6-1, 6-3 in the semis and fell 6-3, 6-1 to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Mio Fukushima in the third-place match.

Unseeded Liying Wang of Gunn lost in the first round of singles play Nov. 20. No. 7 Myra Davoudi of Leland beat Wang 6-2, 6-1.