Westlake Did It by the Numbers

The top-seeded Westlake High boys’ tennis team didn’t officially distinguish itself as the best team in the Southern Section Division III until beating third-seeded Beverly Hills in the championship match, but the Warriors certainly tried to prove themselves before that.

Westlake, which wrapped up a 21-0 season by winning, 10-8, in the final Wednesday at the Claremont Club, also defeated San Marcos, Irvine Woodbridge, Santa Margarita, Agoura, Santa Barbara and Mira Costa--all ranked among the division’s top 10-- during the regular season or playoffs.

The only top-10 teams Westlake did not play were Anaheim Canyon and West Torrance.

“We deserved to win it, I think,” Coach Bernard Kuai of Westlake said. “We beat everybody, basically. We didn’t just do well in the playoffs, we did it all season.”

The Warriors rode depth, and especially, their emotions, to the victory after failure in three consecutive previous finals.

“We are a little bit deeper this year than we were before,” Kuai said, citing 10 junior-circuit tournament players on the roster of 11.

“And our constant push to be competitive on every point was important. We play better when we play with emotion and we did that this time. I think that was what was missing last year.”

Westlake will lose five players to graduation. Doubles players Aron Bert, Adam Sundling and Joshua Kuai, the coach’s son, are expected to move into the singles lineup. Matt Pardee, Jackson Ellis and Allen Kim also will be back.

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Harvard-Westlake’s third loss to Peninsula in the Division I championship match did little to take the luster off a shining season.

The Wolverines (25-4-1) had losses only to Peninsula and Cardinal Gibbons of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

They were undefeated in Mission League play, and placed second in one national tournament and finished third in another.

“They wanted a shot at it all and they got that,” Coach Keith Huyssoon of Harvard-Westlake said. “We lost to Peninsula three times. What can we say? We can’t argue with the fact that they were a better team. But I think the guys got what they wanted, and we accomplished a lot.”

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Crespi (18-5), the top-seeded team in Division V, finished its season one round earlier than expected, losing to eventual runner-up Pasadena Poly, 11-7, in the semifinals.

The defeat, however, came as little surprise to Coach Jeff Cortez, who questioned his team’s seeding after Pasadena Poly beat Loyola, 12-6, in the last week of the regular season.

The Celts lost to the Cubs, 10-8 and 12-6, and finished third behind Harvard-Westlake and Loyola in the Mission League standings.

“Honestly, I think they should have been the top seed,” Cortez said of fourth-seeded Pasadena Poly. “They were just a better team, and I thought we were the second-best team.”

Third-seeded Chadwick, which beat Pasadena Poly, 10-8, in the division final, turned out to be better than both of them.

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Cortez wrapped up his final day at Crespi on Friday, and already has taken over his new position as football coach at Paraclete High.

But he did not leave the Celts’ cupboard bare.

Crespi will return No. 1 singles player Stephen Amritraj, as well as brothers Chris and Marc McNicoll, who played singles and doubles this season, and doubles players Steven Bondy and Freddy Triebel.

Also expected to return for his senior season is Erick Balderrama, who sat out with a knee injury suffered playing soccer. Balderrama was a No. 2 doubles player as a freshman and sophomore.

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Coach Steve Kuechel of Campbell Hall has high praise for Adam Zunder, the Vikings’ senior No. 1 player the last four seasons.

“He pretty much put Campbell Hall on the map,” Kuechel said. “I can’t thank him enough. He’s the kind of kid I’m always going to remember.”

Zunder missed one match in four years on the Vikings’ varsity and helped Campbell Hall match up with many of the top boys’ programs in the region.

The left-handed Zunder was 209-28 in sets in four seasons.

This year he was 51-10, helping the Vikings (11-9) finish third in the Delphic League and reach the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division V playoffs.

As a freshman, he helped a team that had never gone past the first round advance to the Division IV championship match.

In Zunder’s sophomore season, the Vikings lost in the quarterfinals, and last year, they reached the semifinals and Zunder was selected the Delphic League’s most valuable player.

“I don’t think it was all me,” Zunder said. “But maybe me being there helped everyone else. I just wanted to help the team.”

Zunder will attend Arizona and try to walk on to the men’s team.