Moore Shows It All in Victory

With his future college coach looking on, Servite’s Ryan Moore showed his game is ready for a greater challenge by carving up baseliner Jose Lieberman of Beverly Hills to win the Ojai boys’ interscholastic singles title, 6-4, 6-1, Saturday afternoon at Libbey Park.

Moore, who won the boys’ 14 title four years ago, was one of four county singles champions. Irvine’s Aaron Yovan won the boys’ 14 title, Laguna Beach’s Ashley Maddocks won the girls’ 14 division and Corona del Mar’s Caylan Leslie took the girls’ 16 title.

Moore, who started slowly, immediately was down a service break.

“I hate to admit it, but I think I’m a little bit of a slow starter,” Moore said. “He hit two winners and broke me straight off.”

But Moore tied Lieberman, 4-4, and rolled from there.

The top-seeded Lieberman, who beat Moore in the quarterfinals here last year, didn’t have any answers for Moore’s new attacking style. He stayed on the baseline and attempted to grind out a victory, but Moore wouldn’t have any of it.

“He’s your basic counter-puncher,” said Moore, who was seeded second and did not lose a set in six matches. “He started out passing me with these laser beams over the net, but I wanted to stick to my plan. I didn’t want to be out there for four hours banging balls with him.”

Moore said he’s preparing his game for Pacific 10 Conference competition. Next year, he will play for Dick Leach at USC, who was courtside Saturday.

Moore’s match finished just seconds after Leslie completed her comeback over Ojai’s Jieun Jacobs on the adjacent court. Leslie lost the first set, 3-6, then won the next two, 7-5, 6-2.

Last year, Leslie lost to Palm Desert’s Jennifer Baker in the girls’ 16 finals, and a repeat performance looked imminent after 30 minutes.

“I was really nervous at the beginning, even though I’d been here before,” she said. “I couldn’t get a hold of my nerves. And in the first set, she played unbelievable.”

Which was how Jacobs played against Saddleback’s Kim Nguyen in Friday’s quarterfinals--a match Leslie attended.

“I knew if she played like that,” Leslie said, “there’s nothing I can do.”

Leslie began to hit a deeper, heavier ball, which put Jacobs on the defensive. Jacobs didn’t handle her new role well, spraying balls all over the court. Leslie lost her rhythm in the second set, blowing a 5-1 lead. But after Jacobs tied it at five, Leslie won the last two games of the set and dominated the third.

In the boys’ 14 finals, Yovan survived leg cramps to beat Rylan Rizza of Rancho Palos Verdes, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Yovan, an eighth-grader at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, got back in the match by pressuring Rizza with deep approach shots and solid volleys.

The top-seeded Maddocks lost in last year’s girls’ 14 final to Alexandra McGoodwin of Newport Beach, but she handled Kimberly Singer of Newport Beach easily, 6-2, 6-1.

In the boys’ interscholastic doubles event, Bakersfield Central’s Tony Congdon and Ryan Haymond defeated Corona del Mar’s Sameer Chopra and Cameron Taylor, 6-1, 6-1.

In the boys’ 16 doubles, Jeff Kazarian and Scott Spencer of Rollings Hills defeated K.C. Corkery of Manhattan Beach and Hunter Jack of Corona del Mar, 6-3, 7-5. In the boys’ 16 singles semifinals, Camarillo’s Travis Rettenmaier beat Henry Mak of Irvine, 6-1, 6-3.