Singles leads way for St. Francis tennis in win over Crescenta Valley
LA CRESCENTA — St. Francis High and Crescenta Valley’s boys’ tennis teams each hoped to reap specific benefits when the squads met Monday in a nonleague match.
For the Golden Knights, the contest was an opportunity to get back on the court after a week and a half off after rain canceled a match twice the previous week. In addition, St. Francis hoped to do well in a final tune-up before opening Mission League play Tuesday at Chaminade.
With no Pacific League contests this week, the Falcons were looking to get in some much-needed competition in their first of three nonleague matches before heading to spring break.
It was evident early on that the St. Francis singles players would likely give the Golden Knights the upper hand and that’s exactly what took place. The Golden Knights captured seven of nine singles sets to earn an 11-7 victory at Crescenta Valley.
“We haven’t played in a week and a half and it really showed today,” said St. Francis Coach Ron Zambrano, whose team improved to 3-2. “We didn’t look good early at all, we started off cold and you could see that we hadn’t played in a long time.
“There is also something about playing on Mondays that is never good. With all my girls’ and boys’ teams, I don’t think there has been one match on a Monday where we played well. Something about being off for the weekend and coming back and playing on a Monday that is never good.”
The loss was only the second this season for Crescenta Valley (5-2), which also fell in a nonleague match to South Pasadena. After St. Francis, the Falcons face West Ranch on Tuesday and Temple City on Thursday.
“We really need the competition against good teams,” Crescenta Valley Coach Sam Hyun said. “We have to play good teams if we want to get better. St. Francis always has a good team.
“We need to play this week because we are on spring break next week and when we come back we play against [defending league champion] Arcadia.”
It was a sweep at No. 1 and No. 2 singles that helped carry the Golden Knights. While top singles Jack Freer won, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, Ian Freer swept, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0. Mostafa El-Harazi won one, 6-2, for St. Francis.
“I did feel a little rusty out there, especially in the first match,” Ian Freer said. “I was just trying to get in as many balls as possible and I was trying to get in the groove and trying not to go for too much really. ...I didn’t serve as well today, but my forehand was really solid so that helped a lot.
“It definitely helps to get in a match like this before league because we play Chaminade and they have improved a lot. CV has a good team and this is a good warm-up for our league opener.”
St. Francis received victories in doubles from Shahan Derbovosian and Sam Poon, 6-3, Giancarlo Ciulla and Aaron Carter, 6-4, and two from James Sobieski, who teamed up with Andrew Tschirhart for one win, 7-6 (7-4), and Oli Sobiesky for another, 6-3.
The lone sweep for the Falcons came with their No. 1 doubles, Charlie Kim and Darren Kim, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. Juho Choi and Cecilio Perez won one, 7-6 (7-5), as did Terry Shin and Edward Ahn, 7-5. In singles, Eric Kim took one, 6-2, as did Jonathan Frink.
