Abrams Falls in Semifinals

Geoff Abrams’ tennis game has grown a lot since his days at Newport Harbor High. But Saturday at the Pac-10 men’s singles championships, the 6-foot-5 Stanford junior showed that his game might need another growth spurt.

Abrams, nearly a foot taller than his semifinal opponent, Arizona State’s Gustavo Marcaccio, played small on the big points and lost, 6-4, 6-4, in front of packed grandstands at Libbey Park.

“I don’t think I played a great match, but I was solid on the important points,” said Marcaccio, a senior from Buenos Aires, who is ranked 43rd, one spot below Abrams in the NCAA singles rankings.

With his high school coach, Charlie Blieker, and a host of friends and family looking on, Abrams was steady throughout most of the 90-minute match. But he played loose service games in the 10th game of both sets, and that was his undoing.

“I lost my serve both times at 5-4,” Abrams said. “That can’t happen.”

Abrams was also disgusted with himself for missing three break point chances on Marcaccio’s serve early in the first set and two more at 4-4 in the second set.

Corona del Mar’s Parker Collins, who like Abrams plays a serve-and-volley game, also had a disappointing loss. He led, 3-1, in the third set, but he lost 13 of the next 16 points and fell to San Marino’s Zoran Korac, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, in the semifinals of the boys’ interscholastic singles.

Collins said part of his downfall could be attributed to two questionable line calls by Korac in the third set. The first came with Collins up 3-1, 15-0. Korac called a Collins second serve long. Collins believed it landed inside the service line. Korac broke Collins’ serve by winning the next four points and he took the next three games to go up, 5-3.

The point that gave him the 5-3 advantage was the one Collins disputed the most. Collins hit a forehand that appeared to land on the line, but Korac called it out. Instead of 4-4 and deuce, it was 5-3 Korac.

“It’s a letdown when you’re thinking you’re going to get the point,” Collins said. “That was such a big point, but he may have seen it out.”

But afterward, Korac wasn’t so sure.

“I knew for sure the serve was out,” Korac said. “But the other one, judging by the spectators’ reaction, I guess I made a bad call. I didn’t intend to.”

Korac went on to beat San Bernardino San Gorgonio’s Carl McCafferty in the final, wrapping up the Griggs Cup team trophy for San Marino. Corona del Mar and Central Bakersfield finished a point back with seven points.

Caylan Leslie, Collins’ classmate, fared much better. She won her second consecutive Ojai title with a grueling 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Palm Desert’s Jennifer Baker. Leslie blew a 4-1 lead in the third set and trailed 5-4 but recovered to win the last three games.

Notes

In the girls’ 14 final, top-seeded Lindsey Nelson of Orange defeated Tracy Lin of Anaheim, 6-4, 6-1. In the girls’ 18 doubles final, Mater Dei’s Melissa Esmero and Woodbridge’s Adriana Hockicko were beaten by the top-seeded team of Tiffany Brymer of Apple Valley and Abagail Spears of Valley Center, 6-2, 6-4. . . . In the boys’ 16 doubles final, Corona del Mar’s Brian Morton and Hunter Jack lost to top-seeded Derrick Bauer and Armando Carracosa, 6-3, 6-2.