CdM boys’ tennis wins battle of Sea Kings, stays perfect

The Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis team received a welcome visit from an old friend on Wednesday afternoon.

Program alumnus Matt Paulsen, an always fiery competitor who graduated in 2017 and is now a freshman at Texas Christian University, dropped by his old stomping grounds to check out the nonleague match against Palos Verdes. He led CdM’s pre-match cheer.

Paulsen, who said he’s on spring break this week, took off early in the third round after CdM had clinched the match. He screamed out, “Let’s go Kings!” as he left the court.

“It was good to see a veteran come support,” CdM junior Kyle Pham said.

Both teams could answer to Kings, as Palos Verdes also is the Sea Kings. But it was CdM that won the battle of teams with the same mascot, posting a 13-5 nonleague home win.

CdM improved to 5-0 this season, and nearly half of its starting lineup — four starters in all — also has perfect individual records as well. Pham and senior Diego Fernandez del Valle are both 15-0 in singles this season.

Each player easily swept his three sets on Wednesday. Pham beat Palos Verdes’ Chase Brannen 6-3, Michael Purne 6-1 and Sean Holt 6-2. Fernandez del Valle won his three sets against the same three players, 6-1, 6-0 and 6-1.

CdM seniors Jacob Cooper and Ryan Wessler also swept in doubles against Palos Verdes (2-1) to improve to 15-0 this season. The last set was the toughest for Cooper and Wessler, who rallied to pull out a 7-6 (7-2) tiebreaker victory over Palos Verdes’ No. 2 doubles team of Bodi Brannen and Brian Hom.

Wessler held serve to send the match into the tiebreaker, which he and Cooper dominated.

“The seniors and Kyle are leading the charge right now,” CdM coach Jamie Gresh said.

CdM led Palos Verdes 5-1 after the first round and 9-3 after two rounds, with Fernandez del Valle’s 6-1 win over Holt in the third round clinching the match.

Sophomore John Dick and freshman Bradley Amor won twice at No. 2 doubles for CdM. A pair of juniors, Luke Muradliyan and Tyler Hollander, won twice at No. 3 doubles. Each team only lost to Palos Verdes’ No. 1 duo of Sam Mendel and Wolfie Weiss.

“The whole team is playing really well,” Fernandez del Valle said.

The 13-5 final score was actually CdM’s closest in its five matches so far. Then again, CdM, ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, has yet to play another team ranked in the top 10 in Division 1 this season.

That will change Thursday. CdM will play another team from Palos Verdes, and this time it won’t be the favorite. CdM plays at No. 2 Palos Verdes Peninsula in a nonleague match.

Peninsula lost its top player, Ojai singles champion and CIF Individuals singles finalist Connor Hance, to graduation. Hance now plays at UCLA, but the Panthers remain a tough team to beat.

“They’re always strong,” Pham said. “They always have a good singles lineup.”

The teams have a history. Peninsula won the 2016 Division 1 championship, but CdM upset the Panthers that year to win the CIF USTA Southern California Regional title, winning the championship match by a 4-3 score after Pham won the deciding set.

Peninsula then knocked off CdM twice last year, first in a nonleague match. The second time came in the Division 1 quarterfinals, as Peninsula won 14-4 on its way back to the final. There, the Panthers lost to Studio City Harvard-Westlake by a 10-8 score.

CdM has its first Pacific Coast League match against rival University, the top-ranked team in Division 1, on March 22 on the road.

“I think our team’s going in the right direction,” Gresh said. “Today was a good test, to play Palos Verdes, and we’re excited to go up to Peninsula. They’re the toughest team on our schedule so far. We’ll kind of have that underdog mentality going in … it’s a big test.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo