County Girls Ousted in Early Rounds

Faye DeVera, Natalie Exon and Nadia Vaughan, the last three Orange County girls in the Easter Bowl Junior Tennis Championships, were eliminated Monday at the Riviera Resort and Country Club in Palm Springs.

Villa Park’s DeVera, two-time Times Orange County player of the year, lost to Whitney Laiho of Middletown, R.I., in the first round of the girls’ 18 division, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. Irvine’s Exon lost, 6-3, 6-1, to Iva Trifunovic of Bradenton, Fla.

Vaughan, from Corona del Mar, was the only player to make it past the first round in girls’ singles, but she fell Monday to fourth-seeded Christina Denny of Canton, Ohio, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

County boys fared better. In the boys’ 18, Newport Beach’s Geoff Abrams defeated Chad Carlson of Mableton, Ga., 6-2, 6-1. Ryan Moore from Fullerton defeated Ramsey Smith of Hilton Head, S.C., 7-5, 7-5.

Sixth-seeded Kevin Kim, a Fullerton resident now playing at the Palmer Tennis Academy in Florida, defeated Michael Blue of Atlanta, 6-1, 6-3. Moore will play Alex Hur of Boca Raton, Fla., and Kim will play Nathan Overholser of Okemos, Mich., today in the second round.

The only loss in the boys’ 18 division was Fullerton’s Joseph Gilbert, who lost to Ali Ansari of Houston, 6-3, 6-2. Newport Beach’s Taylor Dent, seventh seeded in the boys’ 16s, quickly defeated David Tzou of Tucson, 6-2, 6-0. Dent will face Yorke Allen of McLean, Va., today in the second round.