CdM stuns Mira Costa
MANHATTAN BEACH — There has been no love lost between the Corona del Mar and Mira Costa high school tennis teams this season, but things turned over the top for a moment Monday afternoon at Mira Costa High.
Corona del Mar High tennis sophomores Diego Fernandez del Valle and Jacob Cooper had just won a big 7-6 (8-6) tiebreaker victory over Mira Costa twins Blake and Tanner Suard. Fernandez del Valle turned back to the crowd, pointing his fingers directly toward his eyes in the celebration style used by former tennis pro Lleyton Hewitt.
A Mira Costa supporter, perhaps misunderstanding the gesture, allegedly responded by giving Fernandez del Valle a middle finger. This set off considerable commotion among the parents from both schools sitting in the bleachers behind the court. The fan did not deny his action.
“He flipped us off first,” the fan said of Fernandez del Valle, and CdM Coach Jamie Gresh wasn’t really having it.
“He’s a sophomore in high school,” Gresh, on court, responded through the chain-link fence. “Why would you do that?”
A moment later Gresh consulted with Mira Costa Coach Joe Ciasulli, saying, “We won’t start playing until that’s removed.”
The Mira Costa fan voluntarily left the match. The Sea Kings celebrated loudly on court, but for other reasons. The tiebreaker victory had given CdM a big 5-1 lead after the first round.
The Sea Kings let their play on the court do the talking. They were on their way to a 10-8 upset victory over the No. 4-seeded Mustangs in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal match.
Corona del Mar (18-4) is back in the semifinals for the first time in three years. CdM will play host to top-seeded San Marino, a 15-3 winner over Beckman, in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Keeping cool proved big for the Sea Kings, who got a bit of revenge after losing to Mira Costa, 10-8, in a nonleague match in March that also turned contentious.
“I just tried to tell them to keep their composure and focus on the tennis, try not to deal with the crowd,” Gresh said after Monday’s match. “If you need anything, I’ll take care of it. I think they did a good job of trying to keep everything inside of the court. There was a lot going on with their fans, a lot going on with their JV players. I give my guys a lot of credit. In a playoff match, tempers run hot, and we did a good job of winning on the road.”
Like in the teams’ first meeting, CdM won eight of nine singles sets. Senior co-captains Bjorn Hoffmann and Pedro Fernandez del Valle both swept, and freshman Kyle Pham won two of three sets. The difference Monday came in the doubles, which Mira Costa (20-3) had swept in the teams’ first meeting.
This time, CdM only won two doubles sets, but that was enough. They both came in the first round. Besides Diego Fernandez del Valle and Cooper’s aforementioned win, senior Oliver Kim and junior Grant Brown came through for a 6-4 victory against Mira Costa’s No. 1 team of Jeremy Chung and Evan Fortier.
Kim and Brown had to hang on after earning a 5-2 lead, but Kim used a couple of aces to help serve out the set. It was big for the duo, which had gone winless in the second round of CIF against Santa Barbara.
“It was huge,” Kim said. “Sometimes this season I’ve felt like I’ve kind of been a deadweight to the team. It felt good to help contribute to the team. Sometimes you have [fellow seniors] Bjorn and Pedro doing so well consistently, and it’s like we’re kind of letting them down. But it felt really good to know that we helped contribute to that [win].”
CdM took an 8-4 advantage after the second round, and Pedro Fernandez del Valle and Hoffmann quickly won in the third round to clinch the contentious match.
Mira Costa’s doubles team of Matthew Poh and Kyle Sillman earned a sweep. The difference, though, was the younger Fernandez del Valle, at least to Mira Costa Coach Ciasulli. Diego didn’t play in the teams’ first meeting, as he was not yet eligible. On Monday, he and Cooper came close to sweeping, though they lost their other two sets in tiebreakers.
“The reality is, Diego makes them a much stronger team,” Ciasulli said. “It’s not just strengthening that doubles team. All of the doubles teams were better this time than they were last time, and it made a big difference. We have very good doubles teams, and they’ve carried us all year, but our margins of victory are so small. We have to rely on our doubles teams to win eight or nine sets every match, and that’s pretty tough. They’ve been up to the task most of the time this year, but Corona was just a little bit stronger, and I think it was because of Diego.”
The Sea Kings hope to stay strong against top-seeded San Marino, the Rio Hondo League champion.
“We’re going to do our best,” Gresh said. “The guys are really pumped to be back in the semis. I’m super-proud of this group of kids. They’ve worked hard all year. They’ve listened, they’ve learned, and it’s been a fun ride.”
