Varvais Didn’t See This One Coming

Nick Varvais made a keen prediction earlier in the week when he said unseeded Ryan Moore would upset top-seeded Andrew Scorteanu in the first round.

It happened.

What Varvais of Simi Valley didn’t foresee was the manner in which his latest run at a Southern California Junior Sectional championship would be halted in the quarterfinals--by Moore.

Eighth-seeded Varvais fell to Moore, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, after he failed to hold serve eight times Friday at Los Caballeros Sports Village.

Varvais, who served 15 times in the match, was broken all five times in the third set, which proved to be his last in a Southern California juniors tournament.

A recent graduate of Royal High, Varvais, 16, is playing in the 18-and-under division. He will be eligible in 1997 to make what would be a third attempt to reach the semifinals in 18s.

But after quarterfinal defeats the past two years, Varvais said he’s done with juniors.

“I don’t plan on coming back here,” he said. “I could have won this. But I was going for too much on my first serve.”

And he was missing, which allowed Moore, of Fullerton, to make some aggressive returns off the second serve.

Varvais appeared to take control of the match in the second set. And after he opened the third by breaking Moore’s serve, Varvais needed only to hold serve to win.

“I was glad I got that early break,” Varvais said. “But after he broke me the next game, I started playing too cautious and I started hitting a little too weak.”

Moore, who finished 1995 ranked No. 3 in boys’ 16s, could hold only one of his five services in the third set. But that was enough to get him to today’s semifinals.

In other matches involving local players, seventh-seeded Dylan Mann of Canoga Park lost to No. 3 Trent Miller, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in the 18s quarterfinals. Second-seeded Phillip King rallied to beat No. 7 Erin Carroll of Ventura, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2, in boys’ 16s.

Unseeded Helena Horak of Westlake Village advanced to today’s semifinals in girls’ 16s with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Lindsey Diethrich.

Also advancing to the semifinals were No. 1 Nicholas Weiss of Calabasas and No. 7 Philip Sheng of Thousand Oaks in boys’ 14s, No. 1 Jieun Jacobs of Valencia in girls’ 14s, No. 3 Stephen Amritraj of Calabasas in boys’ 12s and No. 1 Lori Stern of Ojai in girls’ 12s.