SECTION PLAYOFFS : Boys’ Tennis : Mt. Carmel, La Jolla Are Team Titlists

With all the success Mt. Carmel High’s sports programs have had over the years, there is little room for Palomar League banners in the school’s gymnasium--just CIF, please.

So although Tony Goffredo has led the Sundevil tennis team to four Palomar championships, two second-place section finishes and six semifinal appearances, the success has never received banner recognition.

Until Thursday, that is. The section 3-A tennis banner will now join those of baseball, swimming and cross-country.

Mt. Carmel avenged last year’s 3-A final loss to Torrey Pines by defeating the Falcons, 8.25-2.75, at Morley Field.

La Jolla won its 17th championship in the past 20 years by taking 2-A with a 7.5-3.5 victory over St. Augustine.

After the clinching the 3-A match, Goffredo received the obligatory water cooler shower from his team. His teams had been runners-up in both 1988 (to Torrey Pines) and ’86 (to Vista).

Mt. Carmel senior Gene Carswell, who beat Torrey Pines’ Chris Swartwood (the Palomar singles champ), 6-4, 6-2, at No. 1, knows the runner-up feeling all too well. Carswell was a member of both second-place teams and another that took third in ’87.

Carswell is seeded seventh in the individual singles championships that begin today at University of San Diego but had other things on his mind Thursday.

“I’d default out of (the individual tournament) for the team championship,” Carswell said. “I would trade nothing for a team experience like this, especially since I’ve been going after it this long.”

Mt. Carmel (19-3) took five of the seven matches, losing only at No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles. The section plays under a format that gives two points for No. 1 singles and doubles, 1.5 points for No. 2 second and No. 3 singles, one point for No. 4 singles, and 1.75 points for No. 2 and No. 3 doubles.

La Jolla sophomore David Smith upset St. Augustine’s Ignacio Martinez, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), (seeded No. 2 in individual singles) to clinch the victory. Smith fought back from a 3-0 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker.

Smith’s teammates were wearing sweatshirts that chronicled all of La Jolla’s section titles, including this one.

“That was kind of a mistake,” said Smith, a transfer from La Jolla Country Day School. “We would have felt pretty stupid if we lost. We probably would have taken a lot of crap.”

La Jolla (22-0) also got victories from Jeff Bethard at No. 3 singles, Trevor Hess at No. 4 singles, freshmen James Condo and Jon Elsberry at No. 2 doubles and Alexis Kopikis and Kenny Park at No. 3 doubles.