SOUTHERN SECTION TEAM TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : 3-A DIVISION : San Marino Slips Past Woodbridge

It figured to be close, so the San Marino High School tennis team searched for an edge Wednesday, any edge, going into its Southern Section 3-A championship match against Woodbridge.

The Titan players decided they could get an advantage by wearing matching T-shirts that sported a taunting, street slogan that some might construe as obscene.

Woodbridge Coach Gregg Tarr called the ploy bush.

San Marino Coach Brian Chambers said it was simply obnoxious.

But Chris Emery, Woodbridge’s No. 1 singles player, said it was smart.

Wearing their brashness on their backs, the Titans tied Woodbridge, 9-9, and won the title on number of games won, 82-78, at the Racquet Club of Irvine.

The teams each won three sets after the first round, then were tied, 6-6, with Woodbridge ahead on games, 53-52, after the second.

But the Warriors’ lead didn’t hold.

Both teams figured it would be that close and that’s where San Marino’s mastery of the mind games came into play.

Mark Moore, San Marino’s No. 1 singles player, beat Eric Berg, Woodbridge’s No. 3 player, 6-2, and that got No. 2 singles player Reid Slattery, as emotional as any of the San Marino players, pumped up.

Slattery, a sophomore whose winners were punctuated by a scream and a raised fist, then knocked off Emery, 6-3.

That helped San Marino tie it, 9-9. And when the games were counted the Titans had won their third championship in the past 10 years.

Woodbridge was the defending 3-A champion, having beaten Sunny Hills, 10-8, last season.

“As a team they just wanted it more down the stretch,” said Emery, who beat Moore, 6-4, and Rich Yung, 6-2. “We’re known for being a loud team and being pumped up. (But) the nerves showed down the stretch.”

Indeed, the Warriors seemed tame compared to the San Marino players and fans. And that wasn’t always a good thing.

The Slattery-Berg set grew particularly testy, with the players repeatedly exchanging barbs until Slattery pulled out a 6-3 victory.

In his postmatch comments, Chambers seemed almost apologetic for his team’s actions and for their T-shirts.

“We have a few hyperactive kids on our team,” he said. “They tend to make everyone else pretty intense. It’s pretty obnoxious.”

Emery, for one, didn’t seem to mind. He thought it was sound strategy.

“I didn’t let (the T-shirts) bother me,” he said. “I heard some of the other guys talking about it. It worked to their advantage. They came in cocky. Sometimes you have to do that. It happens all the time in all sports.”

Berg, a 17-year-old senior, will play for UC San Diego next season.

“Four games is, obviously, very minute,” he said. “If I’d pulled that last one out (against) Slattery . . . I got in a hole (and trailed) 4-0, before I started playing.”

Neither Emery nor Tarr could fault the Warriors’ effort. Neither was willing to concede San Marino had a better team.

“When it’s this close you don’t want to be a sore loser and say, ‘I want to play them again,’ but I do,” Tarr said.

Said Emery: “It’s not like they’re a better team than us. The difference was who was pumped up.”