Uni stays on top
IRVINE — Playing in the toughest league in Southern California, if not the country, has never slowed down the University High boys’ tennis team.
And, while Corona del Mar boys’ tennis coach Jamie Gresh believes his team has perhaps never been closer to the rival Trojans in his four-year tenure, it wasn’t quite enough to pull out a key Pacific Coast League win on the road Wednesday afternoon.
University won eight of nine doubles sets to beat CdM, 11-7, and take over outright first place in league.
Singles sweeps from CdM seniors Bjorn Hoffmann and Pedro Fernandez del Valle weren’t quite enough to upset the Trojans, who are ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division 1 and improved to 11-1, 4-0 in league.
The Trojans are going for their 10th straight outright league title and have not lost a league match since 2006. Their doubles teams of senior co-captain Josh Piatos and junior Hans Huang, as well as senior Hudson Graf and sophomore Patryk Kozlowski, both swept. Uni’s No. 2 doubles team of senior co-captain Tommy Wang and senior J.T. Joens also won twice.
“A little more active than our guys, a little bit steadier, they served a little bigger,” Gresh said. “We had a few close sets, but Uni just showed their depth today, especially on the doubles side of the ball with three solid teams. To win only one [set in doubles] is tough. I thought our guys fought really hard, played well and had some chances here and there. But to close out doubles sets you have to stay aggressive and make some things happen, and we weren’t able to consistently do that.”
University won the first four sets completed in the first round before a couple of key singles wins for CdM (10-3, 4-1), which is ranked No. 6 in Division 1. First, Hoffmann downed University sophomore Julian Lafond, 6-4, at No. 1 singles. Then Fernandez del Valle beat University’s Naevin Anukornchaikul by the same score at No. 2 singles.
Still, the Trojans took a 4-2 lead after the first round, before Hoffmann and Fernandez del Valle also won twice in the second round. The Sea Kings also picked up their only doubles set win when Fernandez del Valle’s freshman brother Diego and junior Matt Paulsen took down Wang and Joens, 6-3.
But University picked up a key doubles win in the second round as well, as Graf and Kozlowski rallied to beat CdM’s Jacob Cooper and Kyle Pham, 6-4. That helped the Trojans earn a 7-5 sets advantage, which loomed even larger as they had significant lead in games.
“We definitely needed to get to 6-all,” Gresh said. “Being 5-7 down on the road, you’re asking a lot to try to squeeze out four [sets] in the last round. I thought we competed well though. The good news is, we get to play them again in two weeks [on April 26 at CdM].”
Lafond, Anukornchaikul and Garrett Kurtz easily swept CdM at No. 3 singles. University Coach John Kessler displayed some surprise before the match that CdM didn’t play Pham or Diego Fernandez del Valle, who recently became eligible after a 30-day transfer sit-out period, at that spot.
Gresh said he might adjust the lineup when the teams play again in league. Still, the Trojans’ depth won the match on Wednesday. They also recently became full strength, as Lafond became eligible after transferring from Irvine High.
“Obviously, we’re a deep team,” Los Alamitos assistant coach Kevin Garrett said. “We don’t have the top end that they do. We kind of knew coming into it that it was going to come down to our depth, using and relying on our depth. Every guy does it for us ... and it showed up today, winning eight of nine in doubles.”
The Sea Kings can’t quite look ahead to the rematch at this point. Not with teams like Beckman, Woodbridge and Northwood in league. The teams are ranked Nos. 8, 9 and 10, respectively, in Division 1.
CdM squeezed past Woodbridge and Beckman by 10-8 scores the first time through league. On Thursday, the Sea Kings play host to the Warriors.
“It’s absolutely impressive,” Gresh said of the dominance in league of University, which won five straight Division 1 titles from 2010-14. “I consider this to be the strongest league in Southern California. There’s always a team that doesn’t make playoffs and finishes fourth in league, that’s still a darn good team. I mean, I don’t think we were bad last year ... but I love the league that we play in. It’s just great to be around good, high-level tennis for high school.
“We’ve got to get over this one real quick. The best way to do it is get back on the courts and play a match [Thursday against Woodbridge]. I’m actually happy that we’re going to play a high-quality match. We’ll see how resilient we are.”
