By Pete Borello

Stephanie Schnitter walked into the singles final of the Central Coast Section girls tennis tournament when her semifinal opponent failed to show up.

Later in the day, the St. Francis High junior walked all over the No. 1 seed.

Schnitter routed York’s Saskia Nauenberg 6-1, 6-0 to claim the CCS singles title Nov. 26 at Courtside Tennis Club in Los Gatos.

“She’s playing better all the time,” St. Francis coach Lynn Horiye said of Schnitter, seeded second in the tourney. “She made good returns and deep serves and kept (Nauenberg) off balance the whole time.”

Did sitting out the semifinals have something to do with Schnitter’s dominating performance?

“You’ve got to think so, even though she didn’t get to warm up much,” Horiye said. “Her opponent went three sets (in the semis) and that can be physically and mentally hard on a person.”

Schnitter’s teammates, Jillian Bauer and Erica Boutacoff, reached the semifinals of the CCS doubles competition.

Second-seeded Boutacoff and Bauer were surprised by unseeded Dory Gannes and Jossy Tseng of Palo Alto, who pulled out a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 victory.

The St. Francis duo led 4-1 in the third set, then dropped three games in a row.

“The momentum swung,” Horiye said. “(Bauer and Boutacoff) couldn’t hold it.”

Doubles teams from two other area schools bowed out in the quarterfinals.

Third-seeded Mele Pelea and Anne Yeh of Pinewood fell 7-5, 6-1 to a tandem from Half Moon Bay. Unseeded Alicia Incerpi and Emily Keenan of Los Altos lost 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 to Gannes and Tseng.

In singles, Gunn’s Gabbi Hernandez, seeded fourth, defaulted in the quarterfinals due to an injury.

In a battle of unseeded players, Pinewood’s Liz Ashby suffered a 7-6, 6-2 opening-round loss to Prospect’s Julie Martin.