Hoover has enough to beat CV
LA CRESCENTA — After losing to Burbank by just one game in its Pacific League and season opener on Tuesday, the Hoover High boys’ tennis team didn’t have to sweat it out at the end when it faced host Crescenta Valley in another league match on Thursday.
Thanks to strong singles play at the top and some key doubles wins, the Tornadoes were able to secure a comfortable 11-7 win and evened their season record.
“This was good for the guys to get the first win of the season under their belt,” Hoover Coach Julie Hoppe said.
The Tornadoes’ No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, Oleg Simonian and Ejmin Mehranian, are still yet to lose a set this season. Simonian swept, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, while Mehranian swept, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
“My singles, which I knew were going to do the job, did,” Hoppe said. “But it still puts a lot of pressure on my singles because they’re stronger than the doubles and they have to carry the doubles.
“We’ve got to work on that.”
Crescenta Valley Coach Sarah Wiggins pointed to Simonian and Mehranian’s success against her No. 1 singles player, Chris Kim, who had a 6-1 win over Ron Glandian, as a key in the singles bracket.
“Chris has that heavy top spin, but Oleg just had no problem with it whatsoever,” Wiggins said. “Ejmin had a little more trouble with it, but Oleg’s gotten much steadier.”
In doubles, Hoover’s No.1 team of Alex Karibyan and Yeprem Chavdarian won a pair of sets, 6-4, 6-3, and No. 2 tandem Sage Barry and Emile Ohanian won two sets, 6-4, 6-1, to secure the team’s win.
“The doubles stepped it up today, so I’m really happy,” Hoppe said. “My No. 1 team had a little bit of a breakthrough — they didn’t get a set last [match].”
Tim Chong and Jeremy Cho, the Falcons’ No. 1 doubles team, were able to sweep, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2, while Crescenta Valley got a 6-2 doubles win from Daniel Suh and Daniel Cha and a 6-4 win from Allen Chang and James Ho.
Glandian won a set, 6-1, for Hoover.
Crescenta Valley fell to 0-2 on the season after opening with a 15-3 loss to Valencia on Monday.
“This was [Hoover’s] second league match, so maybe they had a little more adrenaline,” Wiggins said. “[We will] work on a few things and hopefully we can turn that around next time and make it the opposite.
“They played strong, Hoover did a good job today.”