SOUTHERN SECTION 3-A TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS : Experience Comes at Price for Aztecs

Now Esperanza knows what it’s like to play in a Southern Section boys’ tennis final.

But the Aztecs will need a return trip before they’ll have the chance to know what it’s like to win a championship.

Top-seeded San Marino cruised to a 13-5 victory over second-seeded Esperanza in the Division 3-A title match Wednesday at Lacy Park in San Marino, leaving the Aztecs with few positive memories of their first trip to a section tennis final.

The victory gave perennial 3-A power San Marino (21-4) its second title in three years. The loss ended Esperanza’s bid for an unbeaten season after 21 consecutive victories.

“Until you’ve been here, you don’t know what it’s like to play in a championship match,” said Esperanza Coach Jean Agee. “We hadn’t been here before, and it showed a little bit. Our guys weren’t used to the (San Marino students) hanging on the fence and all that.”

San Marino, whose only losses this season came against 4-A finalists Santa Barbara and Palos Verdes Peninsula and 2-A champion North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (twice), took a 5-1 lead after one rotation. The Titans took a 9-3 lead after two rotations, and clinched the match quickly in the final round when Rich Yung defeated Jeff Lawson, 6-1, in a singles match.

The Aztecs won only two of nine singles sets against San Marino’s deep, talented lineup. Mike Hammer and Mike Burgess each won a singles set for Esperanza, while the Esperanza doubles teams of Alex Conter-Dan Harris, Kyle Acree-Frank Hsu and Sharif Elbayoumy-Alex Valle each defeated San Marino’s No. 3 doubles team.

Despite the lopsided loss, Agee was optimistic about Esperanza’s future in tennis.

“I would have liked to have changed the result today, but the experience was tremendous,” Agee said. “San Marino’s been here (in the finals) before, and we’d like to return here. We’ll have six players back from this team next year, so we should have a pretty good chance.”