Confident Woodbridge Upsets No. 1 Los Alamitos

After Woodbridge’s quarterfinal victory, Warrior senior David Lingman said his team matched up pretty well with Los Alamitos. At the time, Lingman sounded rather brash.

But he obviously knew his team better than most. The fourth-seeded Warriors stunned top-seeded Los Alamitos, 10-8, Thursday at Old Ranch Tennis Club in the Southern Section Division I semifinals. Woodbridge has eliminated Los Alamitos from the playoffs four of the last five years and has beaten the Griffins six consecutive times.

“I don’t think it’s a jinx,” Los Alamitos sophomore Mike O’Bradovitch said. “They just came out today and wanted it more. We wanted to get back at them and even the score and we might have been a little overconfident.”

If the Griffins were overconfident, there was good reason for it. Los Alamitos had already defeated Corona del Mar, which defeated Woodbridge, 17-1 and 11-7. Woodbridge, however, will get its chance to even the score with Corona del Mar in the Division I finals on Wednesday at a site to be determined.

The Warriors would not have that chance if not for all their comebacks Thursday. In the first round, Lingman recovered from a 5-2 deficit to defeat Cody Jackson, Los Alamitos’ No. 1 player, 7-6 (7-4). The 75-minute set featured scintillating points and few unforced errors. Trailing 5-3, Lingman saved a set point and eventually broke Jackson’s serve after eight deuce points.

“I was really tired, but adrenaline pulled me through,” he said.

So did an array of passing shots that answered some spectacular volleys by Jackson. Lingman’s victory squared the match at three and gave Woodbridge momentum and confidence entering the second round.

“That was a key set, but we should have been able to overcome it,” O’Bradovitch said. “Cody’s been there all year for us. We should have been able to pick him up.”

But the Warriors (18-4) won four of six sets in that round, including a 7-6 victory by Jon Sheridan and Brett Van Linge over Colin Boylan and Jon Nafarrete, who once led 5-2. In the last round, Sheridan and Van Linge recovered from a 3-1 deficit to beat Los Alamitos’ best team of Samir Vora and O’Bradovitch, 6-4.

“We just had a lack of concentration on crucial points and they got some lucky bounces,” O’Bradovitch said.

Even with the O’Bradovitch-Vora loss, Los Alamitos still had a chance to win. It trailed in sets 9-8, but led in games, 77-72. But the Griffins’ doubles team of Matt Cowan and Phil Davidson couldn’t hold a 3-1 lead on Jim Hunter and Andrew Parr and eventually lost, 6-4.