Sage Hill boys’ tennis edges rival St. Margaret’s, controls own destiny in Academy League

Interesting things have happened this season when the Sage Hill School boys’ tennis team has played rival St. Margaret’s.

Sage Hill coach Zoran Korac said he substituted key players out too early in the teams’ first Academy League meeting on March 9. A sizable Lightning lead became a tight 10-8 victory.

The teams met for the second time Friday afternoon at Saddleback College. This time, the Lightning were significantly shorthanded, down four starters for the key league match.

Korac said that standout singles junior Emin Torlic was attending the first day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, while versatile junior Steven Ferry was out sick. Two doubles players also were absent. Korac said junior Robert Gerschultz was studying for his ACT exam on Saturday and sophomore Brian Yu was on a school trip in San Francisco.

Sage Hill again had to sweat out a victory, but the Lightning came through. They are in the driver’s seat for their second straight outright league title after earning a 9-9 (77-66 on games) win.

With two league matches left, Sage Hill (7-4, 5-1 in league) moved ahead of St. Margaret’s (8-3, 3-2) and controls its own destiny. The Lightning can clinch at least a share of the title with a win against Crean Lutheran on April 20.

Sage Hill sophomore Rohun Krishnan easily swept at No. 1 singles, winning 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 on Friday. He helped the Lightning earn their ninth straight league victory against the Tartans since a 10-8 loss on March 6, 2014.

“It was way too close for comfort,” Krishnan said. “We were down a lot of people today, but you know what, I think it was really good that we pulled this match out.”

Senior Ian Huang and freshman Adam Hung both won twice in singles for Sage Hill, each losing to St. Margaret’s sophomore Matt Rosenthal.

The seven singles wins helped Sage Hill. So did the only two doubles sets the Lightning were able to claim, both coming against the No. 3 St. Margaret’s duo of Kenny Dow and Jack Nolet.

Sage Hill juniors Manu Nanda and Jerry Fu beat Dow and Nolet 6-3 in the second round, while junior Ryan Ha and sophomore Matthew Strok won 6-4 in the third round. The latter victory gave the Lightning a 9-7 sets lead. Even though two other close matches were still on court, Sage Hill had enough games to clinch the victory.

The Tartans doubles teams of Jay Phansalkar and Grayson Dow, as well as Peter Gottlieb and Jared Chang, each swept. But it wasn’t quite enough for St. Margaret’s to earn the upset win over shorthanded Sage Hill.

Korac said that this was the first 9-9 match for Sage Hill in his two years in charge.

“I was actually really glad that most of the guys were able to experience being nervous,” Korac said. “It’s super-important to get behind our teammates and stuff. We’re starting to learn to cheer on our teammates … and we should be doing that for all of our matches. That’s something that we’ll be able to take away from this match.

“I even got a little bit of butterflies in my stomach over how close the match was. But that makes you a better player, and a better teammate as well.”

Sage Hill’s next match is a nonleague meeting with Northwood at home on Wednesday. Korac said he expects to have his full lineup available for the match against the Timberwolves, ranked No. 7 in CIF Southern Section Division 1.

A win could propel Sage Hill, currently listed among the others receiving votes in the division, into the top 10.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo