SOUTHERN SECTION 3-A TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Sunny Hills Doubles Up San Marino

Paced by dominating doubles play, Sunny Hills High School won its first Southern Section team boys’ tennis championship Wednesday, defeating defending champion San Marino, 12-6, for the 3-A title at Sunny Hills Racquet Club.

By winning seven of the nine doubles sets, the Lancers’ three doubles teams made it simple for their three singles players. The result was a surprisingly easy victory over top-seeded San Marino (22-1), which hadn’t lost a match since the 1989 playoffs.

It was the fourth time Sunny Hills has played for a title--the Lancers lost to Corona del Mar in 1976 and 1977 in the 4-A finals and to Woodbridge in 1989 in the 3-A--and for Steve White, coach since 1971, it was about time for a victory.

“I’ve had CIF (Southern Section) individual champions and I’ve had doubles champions, but this is my first team championship and it feels good,” White said.

The doubles trouble sent San Marino reeling.

“We are usually a strong doubles team,” said San Marino Coach Maureen Bryant. “That’s what we have relied on all year. We have such depth in our doubles and they just took it to us.”

Sunny Hills’ top doubles team of Pat Um and Sameer Gavankar won easily, defeating Spencer Sabo and Rich Yung, 6-2; Eugene Tsai and Mike Yung, 6-1; and Larry Ku and Jimmy Yung, 6-3. The Um-Gavankar victory over Tsai-Yung gave the Lancers (20-0) their 10th and match-clinching point.

Once the victory was assured, Sunny Hills lost both of its remaining doubles matches. Jon Messrah and Jason Nevadomsky, who hadn’t lost a doubles set in a dual match all season, lost to Ku-Yung, San Marino’s No. 3 team, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker). Messrah and Nevadomsky, who had two key victories earlier in the match, finished 53-1.

The Lancers No. 3 team of Matt Erwin and Danny Lee also won two of three sets, losing only to San Marino’s No. 1 team, Sabo-Yung, 6-4.

Sunny Hills got off to a strong start and led 5-1 after the first round of sets.

Sunny Hills sophomore Davey Robbins finished off the first round with a flourish, breaking Reid Slattery with a series of point-blank volleys to win, 6-3. Slattery, ranked 10th among 16-year-olds in Southern California by the USTA, had trailed, 5-1, but was rallying and had led 30-love in the ninth game before Robbins turned it around.

Robbins won his other two singles sets and Ryan Henderson and Brad Borsari each won one of three sets--results that more than satisfied White.

“We’ll take four to five points is singles any time,” he said. “In singles, we’ll take anything we get.”