After a seven-match winning streak at the recent Irvine Level 4 ITF event, 17-year-old Jordyn McBride simply ran out of gas during Adidas Easter Bowl qualifying.
“The past two weeks have been a highlight, for sure,” said McBride of Valencia. “I don’t play a lot of ITFs, but these last two tournaments have been exhausting but so fun.”
McBride opened up Easter Bowl qualifying with a dominating win over Sierra Madre’s Arianna Stavropoulos losing just one game. After a few hours of rest, McBride fell 6-1, 7-6 (5) to No. 16 seeded Margaret Polk, the same player McBride beat 6-0, 6-2 just a few days earlier in the third round at Irvine.
McBride, who won three matches in qualifying before advancing to the main-draw quarterfinals at Irvine, said she will certainly learn from her first ITF 18s experience at the Easter Bowl. At the end of last year, McBride traveled to Florida to play the Eddie Herr and the Junior Orange Bowl, falling in three sets to the No. 10 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, in the girls’ 16s singles.
McBride is coached by her father Desi and mother Dina at the Paseo Club in Valencia. Dina has won multiple USTA age-group gold balls after her collegiate career at University of San Diego. Dina is the girls’ tennis coach at West Ranch High where Jordyn has helped lead the Wildcats to three straight Foothill League team titles. Jordyn has been the league singles MVP the last two seasons.
“She’s really had a nice run, but was exhausted from all the tennis and the nine matches in seven days,” Dina said. “She will get some rest and get back out there. That’s the type of competitor she is.”
Dina is a former Ojai Women’s Open champion and is hoping to enter the Open doubles tournament with her daughter during the 119th playing of annual event April 23-28.
Jordyn has played a few Open tournaments with her mom, and said she has a great relationship with Dina, as both mom and coach.
“I really like it because they are separate,” Jordyn said. “It doesn’t interfere with my relationship and they don’t overlap. They are such good players and I trust what they say, but they still listen when I question something. They’re also my parents so I like it like that and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Jordyn, who has an older brother Parker who is a freshman in college and a younger 13-year-old sister Chloe who both play tennis, said she can’t remember a time when she didn’t play tennis. “When I was younger it was recreation and we were always at the club and playing in clinics, but also going to the pool and having fun,” she said.
Playing college tennis is a dream of Jordyn’s, who said her three front-runners are USC, Cal Poly and USD. “USC has expressed interest and I also could see playing at Cal Poly,” she said. “But it would also be great to play at the same school as my mom did.”