BOYS’ TENNIS ROUNDUP : Dana Hills Stands Up to Mission Viejo

Dana Hills tennis Coach John Stephens had seen his team lose so many leads this season that he half expected it to happen Thursday in a South Coast League match at Mission Viejo.

And for a short time, Stephens’ worst fears were coming true. The Dolphins entered the third and final round with a four-set lead, but they were trailing in all but one set after 15 minutes. Dana Hills players shouted encouragement to teammates on other courts, while trying to concentrate on their set.

But as the tension began to build, the match ended. Eric Lundblad, Dana Hills’ No. 1 singles player, put away Derek Toross, Mission Viejo’s No. 3 singles player, 6-1, and Christian Spaulding and Justin Rimel, at No. 2 doubles, turned a 2-1 deficit into a 6-3 victory over Christian Fernandez and Cuong Tran, Mission Viejo’s No. 1 team.

Dana Hills wound up beating sixth-ranked Mission Viejo (Division 1), 11-7. The Dolphins (7-7, 3-1) have beaten the Diablos (7-5, 2-2) in eight of their last nine meetings.

“We’ve had three or four matches going into the last rounds with leads, and we haven’t come out ready to play,” Stephens said. “That’s why I mentioned it to them before the round started how important it was to concentrate.”

Dana Hills led Mission Viejo, 8-4, last year, only to lose 9-9 in games.

“When you’re ahead like that, you figure if you don’t win, somebody else will,” Rimel said. “But we decided not to leave it up to anyone.”

Spaulding and Rimel accounted for three of the Dolphins’ points, while Dana Hills’ teams of Brian Chang and David Bailey and Mike Baxi and Carlos Betancourt took two of three sets. Chang and Bailey suffered their first loss of the season after 25 victories, losing to Jason Pascua and Khalid Husseini, 6-3.

Pascua said his team underestimated Dana Hills.

“We didn’t expect those guys to be as good as they were, but we should know Dana Hills is always good,” Pascua said. “I’m really upset and I know our coach is upset.

“We have to start living up to our own expectations, not the newspaper’s expectations.”