Corona del Mar boys’ tennis blanks future league opponent Marina
For the third consecutive year, the Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis team played Marina in a nonleague match on Thursday.
CdM coach Jamie Gresh and Marina coach Chuck Kingman have known each other for a while and enjoy scheduling the match between the Sea Kings and Vikings.
With CdM joining Marina in the Sunset League next year, this will be the last season that the match could be categorized as “nonleague.” Kingman said the Sea Kings will be joining the league’s top division, the Surf Division, with Los Alamitos, Newport Harbor and Fountain Valley. Marina will be in the Wave Division with Laguna Beach, Edison and Huntington Beach.
In terms of sets won, the Sea Kings hung well more than the 10 needed to clinch a win Wednesday. Corona del Mar blanked Marina 18-0, improving to 2-0 on the young season.
It took just 80 minutes to complete the match, with set score wins for the Sea Kings ranging from 6-0 to 6-2. CdM, coming off a season where it finished second in the Pacific Coast League and advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinals, looks to again be relevant in Division 1.
Senior captains Diego Fernandez del Valle, Jacob Cooper and Ryan Wessler lead the way. Cooper and Wessler, who Gresh said were 51-12 together in doubles last season, earned a 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 sweep at No. 1 doubles on Thursday.
“We’re bonding well, and I think that’s one of the most important things, especially early in the season,” Wessler said. “[The younger players] are doing a good job fitting in with the older guys. Time will tell, but so far everything’s going good. Everyone’s doing their job.”
Fernandez del Valle and junior Kyle Pham earned singles sweeps for the Sea Kings, as did Bradley Amor, one of two freshman starters for CdM. The other, Will Pellegrini, won twice at No. 2 doubles with sophomore John Dick before he was subbed out. Juniors Tyler Hollander and Luke Muradliyan also won twice at No. 3 doubles before they were subbed out.
The substitute teams of Austin Dick and Alex Kermani, as well as Ari Abrams and Matt Lobel, also easily picked up wins.
The Sea Kings lost three senior starters from last season, including their top doubles team of Matt Paulsen and John Hart, who Gresh said went 53-9 together. However, with another year of experience for the returners, Gresh said he feels CdM could be a bit improved from a year ago.
“I think we’re doing pretty good with guys understanding their role, and we’re getting better at competing too,” Gresh said. “This match was a good chance to see where we’re at, just get competitive against some different teams.”
Marina (3-1) suffered its first loss after earning nonleague wins over La Quinta, Orange and Segerstrom. Kingman said the Vikings lost their best player, Paul Ambrose, to graduation, but the doubles teams have shown a lot of improvement.
Marina has two seniors in its starting lineup, Hoang Tran and Kevin Le, with junior Julian Falagan at No. 1 singles.
“The kids have worked really hard,” said Kingman, in his second year in charge. “We had a good summer and offseason leading up to this … I told the kids, [playing CdM] is a great opportunity to get out and play against a quality team. You don’t want to play the teams that are the really bad teams all the time. We want to play good teams, because that’s going to make us better.”
Both teams continue nonleague action on Tuesday, with CdM playing at Fountain Valley and Marina at home against Bolsa Grande.
Twitter: @mjszabo
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