DIVISION II BOYS’ TENNIS : Riverside Poly Turns Out to Be Too Much to Handle for Laguna Hills

Laguna Hills ran out of gas in the final round Tuesday and lost to Riverside Poly, 12-9, in the Southern Section Division II boys’ tennis quarterfinals at Laguna Hills.

The Hawks played well in the first two rounds and were down only 7 1/3-6 2/3. Relying on Tom Yim (32-1) and No. 2 doubles Kenton Payne and Christian Schutte in Round 3, Laguna Hills (11-11) needed to win two of the remaining four matches.

“It’s tough when you don’t know anything about your competition,” Laguna Hills Coach Jay Marshall said. “You have to set up everything before the match and hope it’s right. It’s not like basketball and football where you can make adjustments while the game goes on.”

Yim, playing at No. 2 singles, did as expected, sweeping his sets, 6-0, 6-4, 6-1, and Payne and Schutte took their final set, 6-2, but the rest of the team was unable to get by the fourth-seeded Bears.

The Hawks’ Ryan Slack and Jason Hill lost quickly in doubles to Brett Masi and Scott Merryman, 6-0, and Jeff Llanes was defeated by the Bears’ No. 2 singles player, Kevin Schiller, 6-0.

With coaches and players looking on, the No. 3 doubles team of Wayne Cho and Dennis Harper played a strong match against Riverside Poly’s No. 1 Kris Mueller and Jack Williams, but lost, 6-4, giving the Bears the victory.

“I was really happy with our No. 3 singles and doubles,” Bear Coach Mike Vanta said. “They each gave us one win, which we needed to get the match.”

For Laguna Hills, Schutte and Payne won two of three, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Arnold also took two of three, 6-1, 6-1, 0-6.

Riverside Poly (21-2) will face top-seeded Sunny Hills Thursday at Riverside.

“I saw some of them play at the individual events and they are tough,” Marshall said. “Once I find out their lineup I’ll have to make a decision on what we are going to do with ours. It’s possible I’ll make some changes.”

In other Division II matches:

Sunny Hills 15 1/3, Alhambra Keppel 5 2/3--The doubles teams of Kevin Kim and Hiren Bhavsar and Joseph Gilbert and Joey Springer swept their matches to lead No. 1-seeded Sunny Hills to the semifinals. Kim and Bhavsar won their matches 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. Gilbert and Springer won 6-0, 6-0, 6-1. The Lancers, the defending champion, are 20-1.