Doubles sweep in CIF win
BURROUGHS HIGH — It has been the Burroughs High singles corps that have led the school’s boys’ tennis team most of the season.
However, it was a trio of doubles teams that stepped up for the Indians in their CIF Southern Section Division II first-round match Wednesday.
The three teams swept all nine of its sets — giving up just 11 games — to pave the way in a convincing 14-4 victory against Oxnard at Burroughs.
“Our singles have really been the most reliable for us throughout the year,” Burroughs Coach Roy Bernhardt said. “But we have some very good doubles players, and they can get us points as well.”
One of those doubles duos, Oscar Lam and Wen Yao Lin, captured a Pacific League championship last week for Burroughs (10-3), which finished as the league runner-up behind Arcadia
However, the star pair in Wednesday’s match was the No. 1 tandem of Phillip Lam and Kevin Hoang, which dropped just a single game in recording 6-0, 6-0, 6-1 results. Oscar Lam and Wen at No. 2 went, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, and Eric Lee and Bryan Hoang went 6-3, 6-2, before giving way to Colton Ku and Stephen Delacruz, who won, 6-2.
Doing his usual damage was No. 1 singles player Garrett Auproux, the reigning league champion. Auproux, who has lost just one set all season, dominated his three opponents, winning by 6-0 scores.
Auproux said he doesn’t think about the fact the Indians often rely on him to win his three sets every match.
“I just go out there and play, and try not to think too much about that,” he said. “I just concentrate on every set that I’m playing and really try and win every point. But when we do well in singles, it takes some of the pressure off of our doubles.”
The fate of the match was decided pretty early in the afternoon, as the Indians swept the first round, 6-0, and also went undefeated in the second round to lock up the victory and take an insurmountable 12-0 advantage.
Helping finish the first-round sweep was No. 2 singles Calvin Fox, who was celebrating his birthday. Fox battled back to win his opening set in a tiebreaker, 7-6(8-6), against Trent Lopez in a matchup that lasted almost 90 minutes.
Michael Whelan, at No. 3 singles, won one of his sets, 6-0, while dropping the other two, 2-6, 5-7.
Oxnard (9-9), which placed second in the Pacific View League, played some of its substitutes in the third round.