Crescenta Valley’s Rowe places third in Pacific League tennis tourney
For a local group of boys’ tennis players, advancing to a championship in the Pacific League Tournament was a sizable long shot.
In semifinal contests Wednesday afternoon at Pasadena High, one singles player from Crescenta Valley and one from Burbank, along with a Bulldogs doubles team, had the task of having to knock off opponents from high-powered Arcadia to earn spots in title matches.
Unfortunately for Falcon Kevin Rowe and Bulldog James Lee in singles and the Burbank duo of Emory Kim and Alejandro Ramos, none were able to earn upsets against the Apaches contingent.
However, Rowe was able to rebound from a loss to win his second match of the afternoon to place third in league.
Rowe, a senior who was seeded fifth, lost in his semifinal to No. 1 Charles Deng, a senior from Arcadia, 6-1, 6-1. In the third-place contest, Rowe bested Burbank’s Lee, seeded No. 3, in a pro set, 8-5.
“It was very nice to be able to come back and win that second one,” Rowe said. “After playing against Charles and knowing he’s the best player here and that I would have a tough time against him, I’m just glad I was able to play another set against someone who was more my level.
“In the last one, I was just trying to dial in my shots, which in the first match I was just kind of going for everything knowing it was Charles. But in this one, I was able to play more in my comfort zone and that helped out a lot.”
Lee came ever so close at earning a spot in the singles championship. In his semifinal match, the sophomore fell to No. 2 Vincent Leong of Arcadia, also a sophomore, in a tiebreaker, 6-3, 0-6 (11-9).
In the tiebreaker, Lee fell behind, 4-1, and faced match-point at 9-7. But he battled back to win the next two points to tie the score at 9. Leong was able to close it out by winning the next two points, with the winning point coming when a Lee shot went into the net.
“That first match that I lost really got me tired,” Lee said. “I really didn’t expect to get as close as I did to Vincent in that first one. I didn’t expect to lose, 6-0, 6-0, but I thought he would probably beat me pretty quickly.
“But that fact that I made it to the tie-break, I think I did pretty well.”
The singles final was won by Deng, who bested Leong for a third-straight league championship in an agreed upon one-set championship, 6-0.
In doubles competition, the No. 4 duo of Kim and Ramos was defeated in the semifinals by the top-seeded Arcadia team of sophomore Jun Nakamine and junior Nicholas Figuiera, 6-0, 6-0.
In the third-place match, the Bulldogs pair lost to the No. 3 Apaches squad of freshman Herman Sham and Brian Kim, 8-0.
“We’re not at all disappointed because we did make it to the semifinals,” Ramos said. “Obviously, we just tried to have fun and make the most of it. It was a good experience.
“Knowing Arcadia, we weren’t even thinking about an upset today. We knew how good they were and that it would be tough for us.”
The doubles title was won by Nakamine and Nicholas Figueira, who beat teammates and No. 2 seed Jonathan Figueira, a junior, and Matt Fong, a freshman, 6-2, 6-2.
The top two singles players and doubles teams earned spots in the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament on May 25 at a site to be determined.
Twitter: @jefftsports
