Southern Section 3-A Tennis Playoffs : San Marino Too Tough for Los Alamitos

When Riva Da Silva, Los Alamitos High School’s No. 1 singles player, lost to Andrew Sheppert of San Marino Wednesday, it was a sign of things to come.

Los Alamitos never recovered after Da Silva dropped a 6-2 decision in the first round, losing the Southern Section 3-A team tennis championship to San Marino, 12-6, at Lacy Park in San Marino.

It was the second straight 3-A title for San Marino, which completed a 21-0 season. Los Alamitos, making its first championship appearance, finished its season 22-3.

“He (Da Silva) is disappointed,” said Kevin McClintic, the Los Alamitos coach. “If he played well, he could have won all three sets . . . possibly three, but two for sure.”

As it was, Sheppert, San Marino’s No. 1 player, and John Fruttero, the Titans’ No. 2 player, each swept his three sets. San Marino won seven of the nine singles sets.

Da Silva, who lost to Fruttero, 6-3, beat only the Titans’ No. 3 player, Leonard Lee, 6-4.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Da Silva, an exchange student from South Africa. “I thought we were more psyched up for the semifinals.

“I almost lost to the No. 3 player. That’s sad. He’s not a bad player. They played really well. Give them credit. They were better than us today.”

Da Silva fell behind Sheppert, 4-0, before he finally broke Sheppert’s serve. Da Silva held serve to make it, 4-2, and looked as if he would challenge.

But instead of folding, Sheppert, ranked 10th in the Southern California Tennis Assn. rankings for 18-year-olds, got stronger and won the next two games to win the set.

“It seemed like I was down, 4-1, in every set today,” said Da Silva, who is 15th-ranked in the SCTA 18s.

Brian Chambers, San Marino coach, thought beating Da Silva twice was a key to the victory.

“Anytime you can beat Riva, you are playing well,” Chambers said. “I thought he would win all three sets. But our No. 3 singles beat their No. 3 singles. That was an indicator of how things went for them.”

After the first round, Los Alamitos trailed, 5-1. And though the Griffins made it close after the second round, thanks to some fine doubles play, it had lost too much ground to make up.

Wing Chen and Hahn Lin, the Griffins’ No. 1 doubles team, swept their three sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. But other than Da Silva’s win in singles, only Shubert Koong, at No. 2 singles, and Jon Imel and Dave Schulten, the No. 3 doubles team, could win a set.

Chen and Lin were the only Griffins who were in command.

They beat Steve Edmundson and Mark Moore, San Marino’s No. 1 team, 6-1, for Los Alamitos’ only point in the first round.

Next, they downed Brandon Johnson and Albert Kim, the Titans’ No. 3 team, 6-3. Then Chen and Lin finished the match by defeating Joe Lai and Eric Wang, 6-4.

After the match, Chen was asked if the sweep was any consolation.

“No,” he said. “We wanted to win as a team.”

San Marino led, 8-4, after the second round and needed only two more sets to clinch the victory.

First Sheppert, then Fruttero won and San Marino had its second straight 3-A title.

“It was the perfect ending to the perfect season,” Chambers said.

Said McClintic: “At the beginning of the season, I thought we had a chance to get this far. I didn’t know about San Marino, but I thought they were one of the three or four other teams that could win. Though, now that I’ve seen San Marino play, they’re pretty tough.”