Boys’ tennis: Santa Barbara shouts down Mater Dei, 11-7
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With fist pumps and screams of ‘come on’ and ‘it’s too easy,’ Santa Barbara defeated Mater Dei, 11-7, in the semifinals of Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoffs Wednesday at Los Caballeros Racquet Club in Fountain Valley.
The Dons, seeded No. 2, will play Irvine University in the finals next Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Claremont Club after the top-seeded Trojans beat Peninsula, 10-8, in the other semifinal.
Santa Barbara’s players were not at all excited about having to drive down to Orange County and took their aggression out on the Monarchs. The Dons were originally scheduled to host Mater Dei on Tuesday, but after asking that the match be postponed to Wednesday, they had to give up their home site to get it done.
‘I wasn’t really that happy with the game being changed,’ said Daniel Nguyen, who swept the No. 1 singles competition, 6-2, 6-0 and 6-1. ‘That was going to be our last home game of the season and we would have wanted to play at home.’
After the first round of matches, Mater Dei, which was making its first appearance in the Division I semifinals, was tied with Santa Barbara at 3-3. Santa Barbara started to pull ahead in the second round, 7-5, but really put the game away in the third.
Doubles partners Ari Cohen and Chase Melton annoyed Mater Dei’s Omeed Ghassemi and Brian Hoang by yelling ‘come on’ and ‘let’s go’ as they went on to win, 6-0. Ghassemi, a junior, seemed to lose his focus as he tried to match Cohen and Melton scream for scream.
‘It’s high school tennis and sometimes we get into it and lose sight of courtesy,’ Ghassemi said. ‘The adrenaline gets to you. But, yeah, it was bad.’
Cohen said his partner, Melton, likes to get animated, but that it’s all part of a team strategy to psych the other team out.
‘Our coach tells us to put a beat down early so [the other team] loses their focus, loses their will to finish,’ he said.
That strategy was very consistent in the third round as Santa Barbara’s No. 2 doubles team of Andrew Grant and Evan Teufel was yelling, ‘It’s too easy’ after winning points.
Santa Barbara, which last won a Division I title in 1995, was eliminated in the semifinals last year by University, which went on to capture the championship by beating Peninsula in the finals. The Dons, however, beat University in the finals of the Corona Del Mar High School Tennis All-American Invitational in March.
‘I want you to put that in the story,’ Santa Barbara Coach Steve Geremia said of the early season victory.
-- Jaime Cardenas
-- Image by Jaime Cardenas