Amid the Chaos, Freshman Dent Emerges With Two Victories

Orange County was represented by five doubles players and five singles players at Friday’s Southern Sectional individual championships. At the end of the day, filled with smoke delays, defaults and near fisticuffs, the only local player remaining was Corona del Mar freshman Taylor Dent, who was oblivious to it all.

While a nearby brush fire carried smoke onto the courts at SeaCliff Country Club, Dent was smoking Beverly Hills’ Jose Lieberman, one of the nation’s top-ranked 16-year-olds. Dent, who was unseeded, defeated Lieberman 6-4, 6-3. Then, after the smoke cleared, Dent went back to work and disposed of second-seeded Andy Scorteneau of Palm Desert, 6-3, 6-3.

Dent, who recently turned 15, can be goofy and carefree during a match, but Friday he was all business.

“I usually go up and down, but lately my focus has been different,” said Dent, who dropped one game in three sets Thursday during a team match wagainst Palos Verdes Peninsula. “I’ve been playing really well.

“Normally, I’d lose to guys like this [6-2, 6-2], but I’m trying not to hit out on every ball now,” he said. “Before, I didn’t think I was physically fit enough to keep up so I tried to shorten the match and hit every shot for a winner. But I’ve improved my speed and I’m in better shape.”

Scorteneau, who has signed to play at Fresno State, was impressed.

“He was doing everything right,” Scorteneau said. “I didn’t see many errors. I was just trying to hang in there, hoping he’d miss. I did what I could.”

Dent will play Simi Valley Royal’s Nick Varvais in today’s semifinals at 10 a.m. Varvais defeated Etiwanda’s Robert Ortiz, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the quarterfinals. Foothill sophomore Joost Hol was a set from the semifinals after taking a first-set tiebreaker, 7-3, over Santa Barbara’s Sam Adam Webster. But Hol couldn’t match the left-handed Webster’s powerful forehand and serve and lost, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

“His serve was awesome the whole match and he had a great forehand,” said Hol, who earlier defeated Sunny Hills Chris Chung in three sets. “He’s a lefty too and that throws things off.”

Webster reached the quarterfinals, when Palm Desert’s Scott Thompson defaulted. Thompson lost the first set, but was winning the second set, 4-1. However, Thompson was late in returning after the smoke delay and Webster was given the victory.

On the court adjacent to Hol and Webster’s, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Etiwanda were playing a heated doubles match that nearly escalated into a brawl. Etiwanda’s team of Phil Ham and Jeff Bernard wound up beating Peninsula’s Kyle Rasmussen and Maurice Yu, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6.

Servite sophomore Ryan Moore played tough against fourth-seeded San Marino’s Andrew Park in the quarterfinals, but Park was simply tougher. He won, 6-2, 6-2, and plays Webster in the other semifinal.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You hit your best shots and they come back better. He makes you play bad. He makes you try for too much.”

Moore defeated Beverly Hills’ Bobby Croll, 6-0, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals.

“The way I was playing, I thought I could beat [Park],” Moore said. “I thought I had enough weapons. He proved me otherwise.”

Woodbridge’s Brandon Shainfield and Greg Levy were the only local team to reach the quarterfinals. They lost to James Tang and Jason Yao of San Marino.