San Jose school wins its first NorCal girls title

   In a matchup of San Francisco Bay Area private schools, Harker of San Jose beat defending champion Menlo of Atherton 5-2 on Nov. 20 in the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Folsom to win the CIF/USTA Northern California Girls Regional Championships for the first time.

   Harker finished 21-1, including a victory over Southern California repeat champion Westlake of Thousand Oaks in the Los Angeles region. A public school, Westlake is considered the No. 1 team in the nation.

   Leading Harker were five-star recruits Natasha Rajaram, Sophie Hernandez and Emily Novikov (no relation to professional player Dennis Novikov of San Jose).

   Rajaram and Hernandez are ranked 23rd and 39th, respectively, in the class of 2024 by tennisrecruiting.net. Novikov is rated 60th in the class of 2023.