Exon, Dent Keep Their Competitive Fires Burning

Chase Exon and Taylor Dent are just starting their promising careers, but after watching their duel on Friday at Los Caballeros Sports Village, you get the feeling the two heavy-hitters could be facing each other for a long time.

Dent outslugged and outplayed Exon in the quarterfinals of the boys’ 16s at the Southern California Junior Sectionals to take this chapter of the two-year-old rivalry, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). But Exon’s finishing spurt notified Dent that he will be eagerly awaiting their next match.

Dent led Exon, 6-4, 5-1, before Exon reeled off five consecutive games to go up, 6-5. Dent, a sophomore-to-be at Corona del Mar, held serve easily to force a tiebreaker. Then at 5-5 in the tiebreaker, Dent took advantage of an Exon backhand into the net and an Exon double fault to close out the match.

Dent, who lost his most recent match with Exon last month, was relieved that he didn’t have to play a third set.

“I think I backed off a little bit, but I don’t think that was all of it,” Dent said. “He started hitting [all] out big time.”

But before Exon started his comeback, his body language said, ‘Quit.’ He had even stopped berating himself over his unforced errors.

“That’s when he’s most dangerous, though,” Dent said. “He’s loosey-goosey and he’s just swinging.”

Said Exon, who will be a junior at Woodbridge next fall: “I was almost conceding. But I thought I should try to get it to 5-2, then when I got it to 5-2, I said I might as well try for 5-3. Before I knew it, I was up 6-5.”

But Exon couldn’t hold his lead and was forced to try to recount who leads the Exon-Dent rivalry.

“Oh boy, that’s tough,” he said. “We’ve played each other so much lately.”

Dent took a guess. “I’ve played him thousands of times. I think we’re dead even,” he said.

Dent will play Phillip King of Long Beach in today’s semifinals.

In the girls’ 16 division, unseeded Katey Becker of Villa Park High continued her surprising week with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Laresa Marino of San Diego. Thursday, Becker upset second-seeded Kari Olsen of San Diego in a three-set, four-hour match. She plays unseeded Helena Horak of Westlake Village today.

“I don’t even want to think about being in the semifinals,” Becker said. “I just want to take one match at a time. I’ve learned the seedings don’t tell the whole story.”

Eighth-seeded Nina Vaughan, who will be a junior at Corona del Mar, also advanced to the girls’ 16 semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Stacy Roeck of Solana Beach.

“I’m playing a lot looser now,” said Vaughan, who plays fifth-seeded Ilona Kordonskaya of Los Angeles today. “I’ve taken the pressure off and I’ve decided to play for myself now instead of playing for other people.”

Notes

In the boys’ 18s, Ryan Moore of Servite pulled off his third consecutive upset with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Nick Varvais of Simi Valley. Moore will play Joseph Gilbert of Fullerton today. In another quarterfinal, Brandon Fallon of Dana Hills lost to Sam Adam Webster of Santa Barbara, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. . . . In the girls’ 14s, fourth-seeded Caylan Leslie of Newport Beach defeated No. 5 Natalie Mikolich of San Diego, 6-4, 6-2. Leslie, who will be a freshman at Corona del Mar next fall, plays top-seeded Jieun Jacobs of Valencia in one semifinal.