Ocean View’s CIF playoff hopes still alive despite loss to Westminster
Deven De Leon did not approach his fourth season on the Ocean View High boys’ tennis team with high expectations.
De Leon said he came into his senior year mainly just wanting to have fun. The team had a new coach and he wasn’t sure how much success the Seahawks would be able to obtain.
With two matches left in the regular season, though, the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs are a real possibility.
“It wasn’t a big deal to us at the beginning,” De Leon said. “Now, since we have a chance to get in there, we’re kind of aiming for it.”
The Seahawks came into Thursday’s match against Westminster in fourth place in the Golden West League. They remain there after an 11-7 loss at home, two matches behind third-place Orange.
But the Seahawks (7-7, 3-5 in league) are in the running to apply for an at-large berth to the postseason, which would be the program’s third straight CIF appearance.
Ocean View can clinch at least a .500 overall record by beating Santa Ana on the road on Tuesday. The Seahawks routed the Saints 17-1 in the teams’ first meeting on March 29.
The Seahawks close out league play at Orange next Thursday.
“We’d love to have a chance to at least make the playoffs, sneak in there,” Ocean View coach James Skuratofsky said. “You never know what can happen. Maybe we’ll get some luck. You don’t want to wish bad luck on anybody else, but if the injury bug or something hits, we’ll maybe make a little noise in the first round. We could surprise somebody. Stranger things have happened, I think.”
The strange thing that happened to Westminster (10-4, 7-1) on Tuesday was that the Lions lost a league match. Coach Sean Lee said his team lost on games at home against Segerstrom, snapping a 36-match league winning streak. Westminster, which has won three straight outright league titles, heads into the final week of the season tied with Segerstrom for first place.
Senior Simon Nguyen, last year’s league singles runner-up, swept at No. 1 singles Thursday for the visitors. De Leon and fellow senior Mark Gaspar swept at No. 1 doubles for Ocean View, improving to 21-3 in league.
De Leon said the two players have contrasting styles that are working well together, even though they had never played doubles together until this season at the start of league play.
“He’s the lobber out of both of us, and I get the shots that are more difficult to reach,” De Leon said. “He’s [good] at net and I’m [good] in the back. He’s more calm and I’m the aggressive one, and we switch roles when we need to.”
Senior captain Kyle Tsai and senior Tony Phan both won twice in singles for Ocean View, which trailed 4-2 after the first round and 8-4 after the second round. But Skuratofsky also saw improvement from his No. 2 doubles team of Danny Nguyen and Harrison Nguyen, who are not related.
They had lost 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in the Seahawks’ first meeting with Westminster, a 12-6 road defeat on March 27. But Thursday, the Ocean View duo was much more competitive, though it got swept again, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
“I’ve definitely seen some big improvement in the players,” Skuratofsky said. “Much closer today, and that’s only in a matter of a couple of weeks. I’d say the biggest difference I saw was not so much in their tennis, but how they’re approaching the game. They had a lot more fun today, and I think that relayed down to their match.”
Twitter: @mjszabo
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