Boys’ Tennis Preview: St. Francis looking to extend playoff streak

In the previous four seasons, the St. Francis High tennis team has survived the gauntlet that is the Mission League and qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

It’s a streak St. Francis Coach Ron Zambrano would like to continue.

“We know we’re going to have to fight very hard in the Mission League,” said Zambrano, whose team took third last season behind Harvard-Westlake and Loyola before falling to Costa Mesa in the first round of the Division I playoffs. “Harvard-Westlake and Loyola have been very strong for a while and we’ll have to fight hard with Chaminade in all likelihood to get that third [automatic playoff] spot in league.

“It’s going to be a little more difficult than the last couple of years. We have three good singles players and one really good doubles team. We’re confident with what all of them can do and we’ll look to fill out he remaining spots in the lineup to give us a chance to win.”

The Golden Knights will turn to senior Jack Freer and sophomore Ian Freer to stabilize the singles portion of the lineup. The brothers received All-Area recognition last season after reaching the league semifinals in doubles. They will be joined by Shahan Derbedrosian, a junior.

Derbedrosian will also compete in doubles and St. Francis will bring back senior doubles player Nick Sarkisian.

After competing in Division I the past few seasons, St. Francis will move to Division II after the CIF realigned the divisions.

Crescenta Valley finished second in the Pacific League last season behind juggernaut Arcadia, which won the Division II championship. Crescenta Valley lost to Valencia Valencia in a wild-card match.

Though their playoff run was cut short, it’s left the Falcons yearning to return to the court and make some noise with many of their key players back in the fold.

“They want to come back and prove themselves,” said Crescenta Valley Coach Sam Hyun, the reigning All-Area Boys’ Tennis Coach of the Year. “They’ve been keeping in shape while knowing they are in position to do well again.

“We have a lot of very good players, so that will give our team a shot at doing well in league. We’ll try to win as many games as possible. We know Arcadia will be very good again and we’ll probably be battling with Burbank and Burroughs for second place.”

In singles, Crescenta Valley will field juniors Kevin Rowe and Edward Ahn and senior Amos Ro. Rowe picked up All-Area recognition last season in doubles.

Crescenta Valley’s top doubles team will be junior Darren Kim and senior Chan Kim III.

The Falcons will remain in Division II.

Flintridge Prep was the other local team to participate in the playoffs last season. The Rebels took second in the Prep League behind Pasadena Poly and competed in the Division II playoffs for the first time since 2012. They fell to Oak Park in the first round.

Things will look considerably different for the Rebels, who saw Cartier Juan, the reigning All-Area Boys’ Singles Player of the Year, graduate.

Flintridge Prep second-year Coach Morisa Yang, who guided the school’s girls’ team to an appearance in the semifinals last fall, said the next wave of talent will look to partly offset Juan’s departure.

“Cartier was a great player and somebody his teammates looked up to,” said Yang, who was selected All-Area Girls’ Tennis Coach of the Year. “It’s a chance now for the returners and newcomers to step up because are definitely hungry to get back to CIF.

“I think we will have a pretty deep lineup, especially in singles. We’ll figure out where we stand in doubles.”

The Rebels, who will be in Division III, will bring back their top doubles team in sophomore Gillis Linde and senior Christian Yeghnazar. The duo was bestowed with all-Area recognition last season after it advanced to the second round of the CIF Individual Tournament.

The top singles players figure to be junior Ryan Lee and freshman Derrick Tran.

Glendale and Hoover weren’t a part of the playoff picture last season. However, there’s reason for the Nitros and Tornadoes to be optimistic entering the new campaign.

At Glendale, the Nitros will begin a new era under first-year coach Grace Sheldon-Williams. Sheldon-Williams takes over for John Tuttle, who held the post for one season after replacing veteran coach Bob Davidson.

Glendale finished sixth in the Pacific League last season. The Nitros will move to Division III after previously competing in Division II.

“We’re trying to build a cohesive team and look to improve on our performance from 2016,” said Sheldon-Williams, who coached the girls’ team last fall. “They are going to need to put in the time and effort. We have some players returning who have the potential to do well.”

Glendale will return senior singles players Nathan Ongyiu, Joseph Louie and Zain Tokatly. The Nitros will also have junior Pranav Law and sophomore Richard Mirzoian, who can both play singles and doubles.

Hoover finished last in the seven-team Pacific League last season. The Tornadoes will now begin their quest to escape the cellar under coach Yeprem Chavdarian.

“I definitely have high hopes,” Chavdarian said. “We have a lot of juniors and seniors, plus we have a lot of versatility.

“Most of our returners will be in doubles. We’ll also have some room and time to experiment with the lineup early on. We know league will be tough again, but we’ll do everything we can to move up.”

The singles lineup will feature junior Micheal Pison, sophomore Paul Kim and freshman David Mkrtchyan. The doubles teams will probably be the senior tandems of Anton Belosludtsev and Mark Belosludtsev and Diego Matibag and Robert Karapetyan. They will be joined by junior Matias Tanaka and sophomore Nathan Huynh.

Hoover will move to Division IV after it was in Division II.