Tornadoes get best of Falcons
NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Oleg Simonyan had little difficulty breezing through his first two singles sets. He encountered some trouble in his third set, when he developed stiffness in his right leg.
The unexpected ailment, however, didn’t deter the Hoover High boys’ tennis player from completing a sweep to help host Hoover record a 12-6 Pacific League win against rival Crescenta Valley on Tuesday afternoon.
“I wasn’t fast enough [in the third set} and that’s when I could start feeling the stiffness,” said Simonyan, who recorded a 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 sweep. “I was able to get to the ball and it was about me trying to recover.
“I have to be [faster] and anticipate earlier.”
Hoover (3-1, 2-1 in league) won eight of nine singles sets in the first of two head-to-head meetings against Crescenta Valley (0-3, 0-2). The Tornadoes received a 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 sweep from Emile Ohanian and Vardan Adzinhyan won a pair of sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Hoover Coach Julie Hoppe said Hoover’s dominance in singles proved to be a boon.
“You are always looking for your doubles to improve and CV played us tough in doubles,” said Hoppe, the reigning All-Area Coach of the Year. “We had to win in singles.
“I’m proud of them because it’s hard to win in singles. They had some tough sets. Give them credit. We are going to need more than four doubles wins to win. I still have to tweak some things.”
Crescenta Valley fared better in doubles, winning five sets, despite missing doubles player James Oh because of illness. The Falcons’ No. 1 tandem of Justin Chung and Tim Chong swept, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(7-5).
Crescenta Valley also got a pair of 6-4 victories from Greg Manouchehri and Patrick Meserkhani.
“Doubles did OK,” Crescenta Valley Coach Sarah Wiggins said. “It’s still early in league and we’ve played three matches.
“We have some things that we need to work out. My hope is that they get a little hungrier. We need to get a little more of an edge and we don’t have that yet.”
The Tornadoes got two wins (6-3, 6-2) from Eddie No and Alex Bychkoviak, a 6-0 victory from Alex Karibyan and Arthur Arutyunyan and a 6-2 win from Yeprem Chavdarian and Danny Kim.
Aren Abrahamian registered a 6-3 singles victory for the Falcons.
Hoover and Crescenta Valley will meet at 3:30 p.m. March 27 at Crescenta Valley.
