McCullough Wins Consolation Title in SCTA Jr. Sectionals
Tom McCullough, The last local athlete competing in the 102nd Southern California Tennis Association Junior Sectionals, literally, received some consolation for not winning the SCTA Championship.
The week-long tournament, which was held at seven Orange County sites, concluded on Saturday with McCullough, who graduated from Flintridge Prep last month, capturing the consolation bracket crown with a three-set victory over Eric Riley of Rancho Santa Fe.
McCullough, a resident of Pasadena, won the first set, 7-5, lost the second set, 6-4, but came back to take the third set, 6-3, at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley on Saturday afternoon.
That morning, he defeated Trevor Dobson of Redondo Beach, 6-3 and 6-2, in a semifinal consolation bracket match at Los Caballeros.
McCullough faced Michael Caldwell of Encinitas in a Friday afternoon quarterfinal consolation bracket match at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center in Costa Mesa and bested him, 6-1 and 7-6. That morning, the Prep graduate had defeated Lawrence Wang of Orange, 6-3 and 6-3, at Costa Mesa.
The day before, McCullough defeated Grant Robertson of Santa Barbara, 7-5 and 7-5, in a consolation bracket match at the Cabrillo Tennis Center in Santa Ana.
Earlier, McCullough played Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks in the round of 32 on June 30 at Los Caballeros and lost to him in three sets. Querrey won the first set, 6-3, McCullough bounced back, 7-6, in the second set, but Querrey came back in the third set, 6-4, to take the match.
McCullough had defeated Murrieta’s Chad Becker in the boys’ 18 singles play round of 64, 6-2 and 6-2, on June 29 at Los Caballeros.
La Crescenta resident Brian King lost to Norik Otzubiryan of Glendale in a boys’ 16 consolation bracket match on June 30, 6-1 and 7-5. The previous day, King lost to Michael McClune of Irvine, 6-1 and 6-1, in round of 32 action.
LCF resident Ina Dan lost 6-1 and 6-0 to Christina Tan of Laguna Niguel in girls’ 16 consolation bracket play on June 30. The day before, she lost to Molly Scott of Trabuco Canyon, 6-0 and 6-1, in round of 32 play on June 29.
La Crescenta resident Jessica Harrow lost in two sets to Sabrina Santamaria of Los Angeles, 6-3 and 6-1, in girls’ 12 consolation bracket play.
Earlier that day, Harrow had defeated Julie Blakeley of Irvine, 6-1 and 6-0. On June 29, Harrow got by Jasmin Harvey of Los Angeles in two sets, 6-2 and 6-2, in consolation bracket play.
Harrow had previous lost to Kaitlyn Christian of Orange in the round of 32 action.