Thanks to Maranatha for this report:
Boys Tennis:
It was an exciting day of tennis at UCLA, the site of the Coastal League Individuals Tournament, as singles players and doubles teams from each school in the league competed.
The Minutemen had a successful day on the courts, playing competitive tennis.
The top two finishers will represent the Coastal League in the prestigious CIF-SS Individuals Tournament, to be held at the end of May.
In singles, Nico Engling and Tim Huang, the #2 and #3 seeds, both won their Round of 16 matches handily, defeating #15 August Luhnow (New Roads) and #14 Nelson Keasberry (Village Christian) 8-1 and 8-0 respectively.
#11 Laci Szabo nearly came up with the upset against #6 Vincent Mirisch (Geffen Academy/UCLA).
Szabo played sizzling tennis, jumping out to the early lead and maintaining that lead until Mirisch fought back to tie it at 4-4. Szabo continued to fight, but dropped slightly in energy and focus, opening the door for Mirisch to take the lead and to edge Szabo, 8-6.
Huang was leading in his quarterfinal match, 3-2, when Mirisch was forced to retire due to injury, sending Huang to the semifinals.
Engling had an intense match versus, #7 Shrey Mehta (California Academy of Math and Science).
Engling won their two regular season meetings easily.
It looked to be more of the same, as Engling won the first set, 4-1.
Mehta turned it up a notch in the second set, going for broke on his shots, and forcing Engling to play defense.
Mehta maintained the lead throughout, until Engling evened the score at 3-3.
He went on to narrowly win the next two games and close out the set and match, 5-3.
In doubles, #3 Jordan Miao/Joshua Im (d. #13, 8-0), #7 Shahe Yerevanian/Matt Yip (d. #10, 8-0), and #9 Sean Tang/Sawyer Tarampi (d. #8, 8-2) all advanced with convincing wins.
In the quarterfinals, Tang/Tarampi bounced back from losing the first set, 4-2, against the #1 seed, Lachlan McDermott/Jake Matlof (Geffen Academy/UCLA), winning, 4-2. That forced a final set super tie-breaker, which went down to the wire before Tang/Tarampi succumbed, 10-8, in a thriller.
Yerevanian/Yip tried to launch a comeback of their own in the second set (they lost 4-1 in the first) against the #2 seed, Jackson SooHoo/Oliver Lewis, from Geffen. Down 0-3, they fought back and evened the score at 3-3, before falling 5-3.
In the final match of the day, Miao/Im faced #6 Ordonez/Dougher (Village Christian) in a rematch of a close 7-5 win just two days ago in the team match finale.
They won the first set, 4-2, but lost the second set in a tie-breaker (7-3), forcing a third set super tie-breaker.
Miao, whose tentative play cost them the second set, roared back in the third, playing with an aggression their opponents hadn’t seen.
Point after point, Miao put the pressure on by hitting with power and precision. The new attacking style of play helped set Im up for putaways and built a 9-3 lead. After losing the next 3 points, Miao/Im doubled down on their focus and prevailed, 10-6,
In Friday’s semifinals, #3 Huang and #2 Engling – not only teammates for four years, but good friends – face the unenviable task of facing one another for a berth in the finals and the chance to represent the league in the CIF-SS Individuals.
#3 Miao/Im will battle against #2 SooHoo/Lewis for the same opportunity. Both matches promise to be intense affairs.
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