La Cañada boys’ tennis battles back to defeat South Pasadena
SOUTH PASADENA — Missing some key players, the La Cañada High boys’ tennis team was not at full strength when it took on host South Pasadena on Friday in a Rio Hondo League contest.
In a battle for second place in league, the Spartans took on the Tigers without their top singles player and one of their top doubles teams, who didn’t take part in the match because of personal reasons.
With the missing players, La Cañada fell behind early in the first of three rounds. The Spartans were able to battle back, winning the final set of the day to register a 10-8 victory.
“We have a very deep team when we’re at full strength,” La Cañada Coach Will Moravec. “But with the guys we were missing today we aren’t that deep.”
With powerhouse San Marino, which has won 30 straight league championships and is ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division I, undefeated and poised to capture another title, the Spartans (9-2, 5-1 in league) and the Tigers (8-5, 3-4) were battling it out for the runner-up spot.
La Cañada lost to San Marino earlier this season, 15-3, and defeated South Pasadena, 11-7, in the teams’ first meeting. With a likely loss to the Titans in the squads’ second matchup, the win Friday by the Spartans gives it the inside track to finish second.
“We knew coming in that if we can win this one that we should be able to finish second if we play like we did against the league teams in the first round,” Moravec said. “With the missing guys today, I talked to the team about having to play up and how they needed to come through for us today.”
Doubles was La Cañada’s strength against South Pasadena, as the Spartans won eight of nine sets. At No. 1, the duo of Philip Lan and Chris Welch went, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1, while the No. 2 team of William Lan and Alec Robertson went, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0, and John Moore and Jared Ahn went, 6-1, 7-5, 3-6.
“When we were coming over on the bus, some of the guys were a little nervous about not having some of our players,” Welch said. “That’s pretty big when you’re missing your top singles player and one of your doubles team. We were just talking about what we needed to do to win.”
In singles, La Cañada received a win from No. 2 JP McKenzie. The other win came from No. 1 Reid Shreck, 6-2, who defeated South Pasadena No. 3 Nick Curvino in the final set to give the Spartans their 10th set win.
La Cañada fell behind, 4-2, after the first round, but came back to tie the match at 6 after the second round.
The Spartans held a 9-7 lead late in the third round and were ahead at that point by nine games. La Cañada then lost a singles set and the Tigers were within four games with one set remaining. However, any chance of the Tigers pushing the match to be decided by games was quelled when Shreak earned the victory.
