Rebels notch second victory
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Two nonleague matches into the season, the Flintridge Prep boys’ tennis team has learned that it is, at the very least, balanced between its singles and doubles factions.
After riding the wave of a singles sweep to a season-opening win over host Burbank on Monday, the defending Prep League co-champion Rebels profited from a sweep by their doubles on Wednesday to defeat visiting Oakwood, 15-3, at the Scholl Canyon Tennis Center.
“I think we played better today in doubles,” said Prep Coach Ron Catano, whose team defeated Burbank, 14-4. “[The Gorillas] weren’t very strong [in doubles], so it wasn’t that much of a gauge of how good we are, but our guys played well.”
First-round wins by Prep’s No.1 doubles team John Lee and David Chou, No. 2 team of Reza Ghesseri and Krishan Suthurshana and No. 3 team of John Kim and Albert Lee, combined with a first-round singles sweep, got the Rebels off to a six-set lead that set the tone for the afternoon.
John Lee and Chou went 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, Ghesseri and Suthurshana went 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, and Kim and Albert Lee won, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.
Singles was more of a mixed bag, with junior No. 1 Alex Wood’s sweep standing as the highlight.
Wood opened his day with a tough match against Oakwood No. 1 Marcus Hunter.
Leading, 5-2, at one point, Wood lost control of the match, allowing Hunter to win four straight games to take a 6-5 lead.
But Wood rallied to force a tiebreaker and prevailed, 7-3.
He went on to enjoy a much easier afternoon from there on with 6-2 and 6-1 victories over No. 2 Sam Buckland and No. 3 Oliver Silverton-Peel, respectively.
“I just started coming to the net a lot,” Wood said of his turnaround against Hunter. “Luckily, I won that one and then started playing a lot better. The next two sets were a lot easier.”
Prep No. 2 singles Kent Byun posted 6-2 and 6-0 wins and No. 3 Eric Kazangian notched a 6-2 win.
“[Oakwood’s singles] were stronger than Burbank’s singles,” said Catano, whose Rebels will host Milken Community in another nonleague match at Scholl Canyon at 3:15 p.m. today. “They gave us more of a challenge.”
Get in touch GABRIEL RIZK covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3226 or at gabriel.rizk@latimes.com.