Boys’ Tennis Preview: Flintridge Prep looks to build on CIF-winning success
The Flintridge Prep boys’ tennis team celebrated its first CIF Southern title in 2019, and coach Roger Hollomand is hoping for more success this season in CIF Southern Section Division III competition with another talented squad.
Meanwhile, St. Francis looks to build upon their CIF journey last year without the talented Ian Freer, but has plenty of returning players in the mix.
In the Pacific League, Crescenta Valley, Glendale and Hoover all hope to make strides throughout their campaign with young teams.
Here’s a closer look at the teams.
FLINTRIDGE PREP
The Rebels, which captured the area’s first CIF tennis title since Hoover in 2002, graduated just two seniors from their championship-winning squad.
Flintridge Prep, the third seed in the Division IV playoffs, toppled No. 1 Maranatha, 10-8, to win its first championship.
This year, Hollomand believes the Rebels can make a deep run at the Division III playoffs and possibly capture another section title.
“Even with [losing two seniors], we’re still a pretty strong team, which is pretty surprising to me,” Hollomand said. “We had two seniors — one was in doubles and one was in singles — and we have four freshmen that came in that’s tournament level and are very strong players. Instead of dropping off, we got better.”
Key returners will be junior Loran Baxter, who will team up with freshman Chris Fung as the No. 1 doubles pair.
Also returning will be No. 1 singles Andrew Megerdichian, a junior. Joining Megerdichian in singles will be No. 2 Will Lanstra.
Other freshmen include Miles Cabrera, Matthew Wang and Tristan Darquea.
Hollomand expects Pasadena Poly to continue to be strong in the Liberty League, where Flintridge Prep finished third last season.
ST. FRANCIS
The Golden Knights reached the Division II quarterfinals and finished third in the Mission League led by Freer, who won the singles crown in the CIF Individual tournament.
Luckily for coach Ron Zambrano, St. Francis will return the core of the team with Freer being the only player who graduated. The Golden Knights return eight of their nine starters with many of them juniors.
“The boys have been working hard on their tennis and they’re looking good,” Zambrano said. “We’re looking good. I think if we go to the playoffs, besides without having Ian, I think we have depth with the rest of the guys. We don’t have a superstar, but we have three very decent singles, two very good doubles and one decent doubles.”
Zambrano will have three strong singles players with sophomore Alex Sue as the No. 1, along with be junior Ryan Frick and junior Sean Hall.
Also returning are juniors Cody and Connor Basso as the No. 1 doubles team. They will be joined by junior Parker Chang and freshman Van Stepanian as the No. 2, and junior Henry Peutet and senior Matt Gallon as the No. 3 duo.
Zambrano expects Loyola and reigning champion Harvard-Westlake to continue to power through league.
“I’m looking forward to next year, when everyone’s a senior and stronger,” Zambrano said. “These boys like tennis. I’ve been doing this for so long, but I’ve never had so many kids that are working on their game.”
CRESCENTA VALLEY
One noticeable change in the Falcons lineup is the absence of senior Carlos Vincencio, who reached the Pacific League semifinals and finished fourth last season.
With the senior gone due to academic reasons, Falcons coach Sam Hyun has plenty of underclassmen to work with throughout in order to fight off Burbank for a spot behind powerhouse Arcadia in the league standings.
The Falcons will have plenty of underclassmen with the loss of their two seniors.
“We’re a young team, but, overall, we’re catching up quick,” Hyun said. “We’re learning a lot of lessons in our nonleague matches.”
Returning junior Jacob Lee will be the No. 2 singles player, with sophomore Homin Lee occupying the No. 1 singles slot.
In doubles, Hyun will have a quartet of sophomores leading the way, with Ben Yeom and David Kim at the No. 1 spot and Eric Chang and Peter Lee as the No. 2 pair.
The No. 3 singles and doubles selections will be in rotation as the season goes on.
The Falcons will compete in Division II.
GLENDALE
Coach Jim Jenks is leading the squad after serving as the men’s assistant coach at Glendale Community College for five years.
Jenks, who will be Glendale’s fifth coach in four years, hopes to grow the program into a competitor in the Pacific League. Jenks was previously an assistant for the Nitros girls’ team in the fall.
“I’m excited to be coaching after 20 years,” Jenks said. “I’m in here for the long haul. I think sometimes I’m more excited than they are because I have this vision of where I want this program to go.”
Nitros junior Marko Ratkovic will lead the pack as the No. 1 singles option. Also playing singles will be junior Andres Hermina.
The lone senior will be David Chibukhchian, who will team up with sophomore Jimmy Louie in doubles.
An exciting prospect for Jenks is Dion Garabedian, the team’s only freshman.
HOOVER
The Tornadoes will have some stability with Meredy Gharabegi entering her second year at the helm.
The former Glendale Community College and Burbank High player has seen big improvements to her team over the last year and will have six returners that include just one senior. The majority of the team is comprised of freshmen and sophomores.
“I’m really looking forward to this season since we have three good freshmen,” Gharabegi said. “I’m very curious as to how our season is going to pan out. I’m really hoping that Hoover will make a difference since they’ve been stuck in fifth place in the last few years. I feel like we can, so we’ll see.”
Leading the singles team will be sophomore Edward Markosian as the No. 1 option, while Hoover will have freshman Eric Der Grikorian as the No. 2.
At No. 1 doubles will be freshman pair, Matteo Wolfson and Benjamin Lim. Tornadoes senior George Sakellariou and junior Benjamin Choi will take up the No. 2 spot, and sophomore duo Eric Chakhoyan and Haik Aslanyan will be the No. 3 pair.