Opportunity Slips Away for Sea Kings

Corona del Mar’s Jed Weinstein could have said his first-round doubles loss didn’t make a difference in his team’s 11-7 loss to Palos Verdes Peninsula Thursday in the Southern Section Division I boys’ tennis semifinals.

But Weinstein knew better.

“That one loss set the tone for the entire match,” he said.

Weinstein came close to setting a different tone. With third-seeded Corona del Mar (20-2) trailing, 3-2, in sets, Weinstein and his doubles partner, Beat Baudenbacher, held three set points against Peninsula’s No. 2 doubles team of Matt Kravitz and Scott Reeves.

Weinstein and Baudenbacher had won two consecutive six deuce games to take a 5-4 lead. Weinstein had been outstanding in both games, nailing winners from the baseline and the net.

But while serving with a 40-0 lead, Weinstein began to unravel. He served three consecutive double faults. Then, Kravitz and Reeves each hit winners to give Peninsula the game and tie the set at 5-5. Reeves held serve and Baudenbacher failed to hold his, ending a set that lasted 75 minutes.

Instead of a 3-3 score, it was 4-2 Peninsula and the momentum had definitely switched.

“I felt the pressure,” Weinstein said. “I was playing good. I just choked at the end. Different things were going through my mind. I wasn’t focusing on serving.”

The pressure on Weinstein and Baudenbacher and the Sea Kings’ other two doubles teams was so intense because Peninsula’s singles were so strong. Loren Peters did not drop a game at No. 1 singles and No. 2 Kyle Spencer lost only five games in three sets. No. 3 Dennis Chang won two sets, before losing to Trenton Rhodes, 6-2, after Peninsula had clinched the match.

Corona del Mar Coach Tim Mang essentially conceded most of his singles points when he switched Brian Walden from singles to No. 3 doubles, where he teamed with Ali Jahangiri.

“If we win our doubles and can win one singles, we could have done it,” Mang said. “Their second doubles surprised us.”

But Mang said his team’s narrow defeat to second-seeded Peninsula (23-0) probably surprised a few people too.

“Everybody was wondering how much Corona is going to get beat by,” Mang said. “But we had their coaches talking to themselves. We scared them.”

Weinstein said he was hoping for more than a scare.

“I just wish we could play them one more time,” he said. “I know we could take them.”