Southern Section Tennis Playoffs : Mission Viejo Boys Get Into Swing of Things, Will Face Foothill Again

On April 14, the Mission Viejo High School boys’ tennis team had a record of 1-12. It appeared to be an also-ran season for the Diablos, who went to the Southern Section 4-A quarterfinals in 1986 but missed the playoffs last season.

Today, however, Mission Viejo will play host to Foothill in a second-round playoff match at 3:15 p.m.

“Much to everyone’s surprise, we’re still here,” Coach Bill Smith said.

The question is, how?

This is a team that lost its first 12 games, including a 14-4 loss to Foothill, before beating St. Augustine of San Diego, 15-3. Even in winning its first league match, Mission Viejo needed to go to the tie-breaker rule, edging Irvine on games, 78-74, to settle a 9-9 tie in sets.

Even to make the playoffs, Mission Viejo had to defeat Capistrano Valley twice in two days. The Diablos won, 10-8, last Friday to force a playoff for the South Coast League’s final berth. Mission Viejo won that match on Saturday, 11-7.

Mission Viejo started the season without its top prospective singles players, Billy Smith (injury) and Doug Larsen (soccer).

Only Smith has returned, as Larsen, a junior, decided not to play tennis this season so he could concentrate on soccer. The Diablos also lost a transfer student, who was ruled ineligible before the season.

Smith, the coach’s son, missed much of the season with a strained thigh, first injured last season. Smith, the No. 1 singles player, didn’t return until the middle of the season and played mostly doubles until the last few weeks.

“When Billy did play singles earlier this year, he wasn’t very good,” Smith said. “The injury made it very difficult to bend his knees, particularly when he served or hit overheads.”

When Smith got healthy, Mission Viejo’s play improved. The Diablos have won seven of their last nine matches. In the 12-6, first-round victory over San Gorgonio Tuesday, Smith swept his sets, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

“Even when Billy got healthy, we were a little weak in singles,” Smith said. “But our doubles play has been good.”

The doubles teams of Dave Allen-Ron Enge and Marc Harvey-Dung Tran were the team’s strength through the season. But Smith has received good play from two freshmen, Vince Chang and Greg Larsen, Doug’s brother. They form to make the Diablos’ No. 3 doubles team.

“When we played (No. 1-ranked) Dana Hills, I knew we had something in Chang and Larsen,” Smith said. “They won our only doubles game. I guess they were too inexperienced to be intimidated.”

The doubles teams carried Mission Viejo past San Gorgonio, which won the Citrus Belt League. The Diablos won 8 of 9 doubles sets.

“I thought we could beat them, because we’re from a very strong league,” Smith said. “Last season, El Toro was the third-place team from our league, and they beat the No. 1 team from the Citrus Belt League.”

But Foothill is another matter.

In the 17 years of Mission Viejo’s tennis program, the Diablos (7-14) have never beaten Foothill.

“We’re anxious to play them,” Smith said. “They pounded us pretty good earlier this year, but we’re certainly better now then we were back then.

“The neat thing is the kids have hung in there through all of this, knowing that the bad days would be over and the good days would come.”

In other 4-A matches, Redlands is at Dana Hills, Long Beach Wilson is at Fountain Valley, Diamond Bar is at Canyon, El Toro is at Mater Dei and Westlake is at Marina. All matches begin at 3:15 p.m.

In the 5-A quarterfinals today, Corona del Mar is at Palos Verdes, Newport Harbor is at Rolling Hills and Santa Barbara is at University. All matches begin at 3:15 p.m.

In 3-A second-round matches, Sunny Hills is at Hemet, Woodbridge is at Palm Springs, Indio is at Fullerton and La Canada is at Los Alamitos.

In a 2-A second-round match, San Dimas is at Valencia.