Dent’s Outstanding Play Not Enough for Sea Kings

Corona del Mar freshman Taylor Dent played near perfect tennis--winning three sets while dropping only one game. But high school tennis is still a team game and Dent’s spectacular play was not enough to offset Palos Verdes Peninsula’s depth, or its spirit.

Second-seeded Peninsula defeated third-seeded Corona del Mar, 10-8, Thursday in the Southern Section Division I semifinals and will play Woodbridge, who stunned eight-time defending champion Santa Barbara, in Wednesday’s final. Peninsula defeated Corona del Mar this season by the same 10-8 score.

“I was looking forward to [the finals],” Dent said. “I’d have liked to see Coach Tim Mang and the team get further. Coach really wanted this and so did I. Sometimes you’ve got to lose to get your mind straight.”

But Corona del Mar’s doubles teams never seemed to have their minds straight--losing seven of nine sets. Corona del Mar’s No. 3 team of John Cappello and Raj Shukla had been the Sea Kings’ best team all season but were swept, 7-6, 6-3, 6-0.

“I really thought Raj and John would at least get two [sets],” Mang said. “That was a shock.”

The other shock to Mang was lack of spirit his team showed late in the match. After Peninsula took a 9-7 lead, the match came down to three doubles sets. Corona del Mar led both sets, 5-0 and 3-2, but Peninsula’s players and fans were making all the noise and suddenly they had all the momentum.

“You have to be helping each other, especially in these close matches,” Mang said. “You can mope after you lose your match, but somebody else is going to picking you up on other court if you help them. I told our kids, “They’re louder than us.’ ”

They got louder as Peninsula’s doubles team of Maurice Yu and Kyle Rasmussen turned around a 3-2 deficit to Reza Jahangiri and Drew Fuller and closed out the set, 6-3, and the match.

An hour earlier, Dent finished off Tim Marsh, his third victim, 6-0. Marsh had beaten Dent, 7-5, earlier this season but he never had a chance Thursday. After coming off the court, Marsh asked anybody who would listen: “How good is that kid? I guess that first one was a fluke. I did play pretty good too.”

Said Dent: “I played pretty poorly against these guys last time,” he said. “I was out for a little revenge.”

Dent won his sets with aggressive play, but that type of play did not spread to the doubles court.

“It was tough for them to pull it out,” Dent said. “As it got later, the pressure built up. We were pretty tentative out there.”

Not everybody was tentative though. Boris Turkich, at No. 2 singles, played almost as well as Dent--winning his sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.