Crescenta Valley, St. Francis boys’ tennis teams ready for CIF playoff openers
Crescenta Valley High boys’ tennis coach Sam Hyun looked at the CIF Southern Section Division II postseason bracket Monday and noticed something familiar.
Much to Hyun’s surprise, Crescenta Valley will open the playoffs for the second season in a row against West Torrance.
“It’s interesting because you don’t see that happen much in terms of playing the same team in the first round in the playoffs,” said Hyun, whose squad suffered a 14-4 road loss against West Torrance last season. “Hopefully, we’ll match up well and get a good result.”
Crescenta Valley and St. Francis were the two local squads to qualify for the playoffs. All matches are scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, unless a change is agreed upon.
Crescenta Valley (15-3) will meet visiting West Torrance (11-8) at 2:30 p.m. and St. Francis (5-9) will travel to Anaheim Canyon (12-4) in a Division II tilt. The CIF Southern Section office unveiled its playoff pairings for all five divisions Monday.
Crescenta Valley placed second in the Pacific League behind Arcadia. The Falcons finished the regular season on a positive note, sending a trio of players to the semifinals in the league tournament Wednesday at Burroughs High. Kevin Rowe reached the semifinals in singles and placed third and Justin Kim and Maclean Lunt made it to the semifinals in doubles.
“We played some very good tennis down the stretch,” said Hyun, who led the Falcons girls’ team to the Division III final in the fall. “It’s good that we’ll be at home against West Torrance and we’ll see what we can do.
“West Torrance had a real good team last year.”
West Torrance finished second in the Pioneer League behind South Torrance.
The winner of the Crescenta Valley-West Torrance match will face Martin Luther King (13-3) or Temecula Valley (12-5) in a second-round match Friday. Martin Luther King captured the Big VIII League championship and Temecula Valley was second in the Southwestern League behind Great Oak, the No. 1 seed in the division.
St. Francis will make its fifth postseason appearance in the last six years after finishing third in the Mission League behind Harvard-Westlake and Loyola. The Golden Knights didn’t qualify for the playoffs last season.
St. Francis will take the 50-mile trek to Orange County to face Canyon, which won the North Hills League crown.
St. Francis coach Ron Zambrano said the Golden Knights, who have been hobbled with injuries and illness recently, expect to be healthy entering the contest.
“It will be good to have a full team ready to play,” Zambrano said. “It’s good timing and it’s great to be back in the playoffs.
“We do have a pretty young team, so we’ll see how they can handle the pressure of playing in a do-or-die situation like the playoffs. You have to start somewhere.”
The Golden Knights will have junior singles player Ian Freer back in the lineup after recovering from a cold. Freer and his brother, Jack, were the All-Area Doubles Team of the Year a season ago.
The St. Francis-Canyon winner will meet St. Margaret’s Episcopal (11-4) or Crossroads (9-3) in a second-round match Friday. St. Margaret’s and Crossroads finished second in the Academy and Gold Coast leagues, respectively.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
