Without Top Player, La Quinta Falls

It wouldn’t take a math whiz to figure out what Robert Chu’s absence meant to the La Quinta boys’ tennis team Thursday. Without their top singles player, who was declared academically ineligible two weeks ago, the Aztecs were edged by Calabasas, 10-8, in a Division IV second-round boys’ tennis match at La Quinta.

“With Robert here we would have won for sure, with two points out of him, if not three,” La Quinta Coach Chris Ganz said. “And that would have pushed everyone else down one [position], so we’re talking five or six points for sure right there.”

Instead, Chu watched from courtside as the Coyotes won seven of nine singles sets, including three by junior Nick Weiss, who is ranked third in the Southern California Tennis Assn. boys’ 18s division and hasn’t lost a set in high school tennis this season.

“I forgot that Chu went to this school, but then I saw him when we pulled up and he said he wasn’t playing,” said Weiss, who defeated Chu, 6-1, 6-1, at an Anaheim junior tournament this season. “That was good for us, but I wish he was playing.”

Chu, who recently turned 17, is ranked 36th in his first year in the SCTA boys’ 18s and he finished seventh in the boys’ 16s division last year. He was ranked 42nd nationally in boys’ 16s.

“He chose to make his mistake and there’s not a lot I can do about it,” said Ganz, who began coaching Chu at Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach when Chu was 12 years old. “Next year I’ll know better how to check on grades. As a first-year coach I was not aware of what I could do and what powers I had, and I think I have a lot more power than I thought I had.”

The Aztecs (17-2) trailed, 4-2, after the opening round and 7-5 after two. Weiss finished off his sweep before most of the other players started their third round, and when Alex Menichini defeated La Quinta’s Huy Nguyen, 6-0, the Coyotes has their ninth point and enough games to secure the match.

La Quinta was able to keep the match interesting with solid play from its doubles teams. Matt Tong and Quan Chao won their first two sets, 6-4, 7-5, before losing 3-6, and Richard Huynh and David Ly also won two of three, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1.

“For a first year it wasn’t a bad season,” Ganz said. “We hadn’t won league in six years, and we beat Garden Grove twice and guys loved it.”