Rio Hondo hopes for La Cañada High boys’ tennis are dashed by San Marino

TEMPLE CITY — Despite its best efforts, the La Cañada High boys’ tennis team was unable to extend its individual season beyond Thursday afternoon.

With a singles player and doubles squad vying for Rio Hondo League championships along with spots to the CIF Southern Section Individual tournament, the Spartans had aspirations for postseason glory.

Those hopes, however, will have to be confined to the team postseason as Spartans singles player Lucas Chmielewski and the doubles team of Pat Finnigan and Nick Malone finished fourth at Thursday’s league finals at Temple City’s Live Oak Park and missed the cut for postseason consideration.

“It’s always tough at league finals and all you can do really is come out and play your game,” Spartans Coach Will Moravec said.

Despite consecutive losses, seniors Finnigan and Malone were pleased with their overall effort as they came into the tournament seeded fourth.

“This is kind of what we expected, so we’re not too disappointed,” Finnigan said. “It’s just tough to beat San Marino.”

The Spartans duo went 2-0 on Wednesday to earn a berth into Thursday’s divisional semifinals against the Titans’ top-seeded twosome of Bryce Pereira, son of San Marino Coach Melwin Pereira, and Derek Chen.

Pereira and Chen ended Finnigan and Malone’s hopes of an upset with a 6-0, 6-1 victory.

The defeat still left the possibility of a CIF-SS alternate spot if Finnigan and Malone could defeat San Marino’s Timothy Duong and Daniel Abrams.

A flat first set defeat was followed by a spirited effort, but it added up to a 6-0, 6-4 defeat for the Spartans.

“We had about a half-hour break between matches and we didn’t get warmed up until the second set,” Malone said. “Hey, I think we did fine.”

About four courts down the way, Chmielewski was breezing early against San Marino’s Jacob Lui, racing to a 5-2 lead in the first set of their third-place match.

Shortly after earning a point, Chmielewski grimaced and then sat down to take a lengthy break in between games.

When he arose, Lui found himself facing a different player.

“It just seems that Lucas ran out of energy,” Moravec said. “I tried to encourage and help him get his energy back, but he was flat.”

Lui took advantage of the momentum swing and ran off the next five games in rallying for a 7-5 victory in the first set.

Chmielewski wasn’t the same in the second set and was beaten, 6-2.

“It’s a learning experience,” Moravec said. “Right now, there’s nothing I can tell Lucas. He’s just going to have to realize that he’s got to be able to fight through these types of things.”

Chmielewski’s best effort may have come in the first set of his semifinal match with San Marino’s Ryan Cheng.

A back-and-forth set was tied at 5 before Cheng won the final two games to pull away for a 7-5 victory, which preceded a 6-1 win in the second set.

San Marino will represent the league at the CIF Individual tournament as the Titans won the automatic first- and second-place postseason bids as well as the first alternate spot in both singles and doubles play.

San Marino senior Danny Gealer outlasted Cheng for the singles crown due an injury default. Gealer won the first set, 7-5. Cheng complained of a lower back issue with the first set tied at 5 and was unable to begin a second set.

In doubles action, Pereira and Chen topped teammates Connor Lee and Arthur Wicke, 6-0, 6-2 for the title.

La Cañada will now await the CIF Southern Section Division I boys’ tennis teams pairings, which are slated to be released Monday at 11 a.m.