Los Alamitos No Match for Woodbridge

The Los Alamitos boys’ tennis team has taken two consecutive Sunset League titles and gone 32-3 during that span in the regular season. But for the second year in a row, the Griffins will not participate in the quarterfinals.

Los Alamitos Coach Geoff Carter said he could see Thursday’s 13-5 second-round loss in Irvine to fifth-seeded Woodbridge coming, but had no way to control it.

“They came out here and didn’t respect us,” Carter said. “They played loose and they played the big points well. There’s nothing to really prepare yourself for something like this other than to play the best people you can play during the season.”

The best team Los Alamitos (15-3) saw this year was Garden Grove, which was among the top 10 in Orange County all season. Los Alamitos lost that match and never had a chance against Woodbridge, a deep team that had its entire roster together for the first time.

Carter said he has tried to strengthen his nonleague schedule, but hasn’t had much luck with the top-ranked teams.

“I’ve called everybody,” he said. “They don’t return my call.”

Carter said he will have Woodbridge on his schedule next season, but that might not be a positive. Woodbridge (17-4) took five of the first six sets Thursday and never looked back. It won eight of nine singles sets and five of nine doubles sets. Woodbridge’s Nos. 1 and 2 players, Chase Exon and Adam Artunian swept their three sets and No. 3 Reza Farokhpay took two of three.

“I knew we’d have to play our best tennis,” Carter said. “If we were going to make errors, I figured they’d have to be forced errors rather than unforced errors. But a disappointing first round made us go the other way.”

Woodbridge won all three doubles sets in the first round, including a victory from Brent de Saxe and David Lingman at No. 2. Lingman, a freshman who was the top-ranked 14-year-old in Southern California last year, had missed the entire season until today because of a bacterial infection in his back and played tentatively, but Woodbridge Coach Joan Willett was just happy to see him on the court.

“As Lingman continues to recover, he’ll be able to help us,” she said. “He’s moving a little gingerly.”

Woodbridge, in the quarterfinals for the third year in a row, meets fourth-seeded Beverly Hills Tuesday at a site to be announced. Beverly Hills defeated Woodbridge this season in the Vic Braden Cup at Century High.

In Division II:

University 10, Loara 8--Eddie Lee of visiting University beat James Pai, 7-5, to clinch the match for the Trojans (14-2). Jon Biorkman won, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2, for fourth-seeded University, which moves on to play Sunny Hills.

Sunny Hills 10, La Verne Damien 8--Chris Chung defeated Scott Carlton in the match’s final set, 6-2, to clinch the victory for host Sunny Hills (15-4), which handed Damien (18-1) its first defeat. Chung won his other singles sets, 6-0, 6-4.

Corona del Mar 12, South Torrance 6--Taylor Dent swept in singles, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, for visiting and third-seeded Corona del Mar (18-2). The Sea Kings advanced to play the Dana Hills-Westlake Village Westlake winner. That match was rained out and rescheduled for 2:30 p.m. Monday.

Aliso Niguel 11, Garden Grove 7--Burt Gonzell and Tyler Verdick swept in doubles, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to improve to 29-1 this season for Aliso Niguel (17-3), which advances to play second-seeded San Marino Tuesday.

In Division III:

Brea Olinda 11, Corona Centennial 7--Ben Springer swept in singles, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 for host Brea (23-1-1).

Mike Le and Steve Tsai swept in doubles, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0, for Brea, which won five of the last six sets to clinch the victory.