Photo of Matt Yip and Reggie Park, and champions, River Lassoff and Emmett Malin, courtesy of Amanda Lin

Boys Tennis:

As the lone Maranatha players to make it to the final day of the Coastal League Individuals Tournament, doubles partners Matt Yip and Reggie Park found themselves both in unfamiliar territory and in elite company.

Yip, a senior, had never made it past the first round, while this is only Park’s second year of playing tennis, losing in the first round in his inaugural season.

After trying most of the season to figure out how to play well together, things started to click two weeks ago in the regular season finale against league powerhouse, Geffen Academy at UCLA, when they won two sets against the mighty Bruins, a team that placed all three of their doubles’ squads into the semifinals of this week’s league tournament.

Yip/Park carried that newfound synergy into this week, dominating their quarterfinals match on Tuesday, 6-0, 6-0.

In Wednesday’s semifinal, they faced the 2nd seeded Bruins team that went undefeated during league play.

Play was halted midway through the first set for a medical timeout, as Yip suffered an injury.

Yip elected to resume play, but he was hampered with limited mobility and movement the rest of the way.

He and Park made adjustments and put themselves in position to win the first set, ahead 6-5.

They couldn’t capitalize on their set-point opportunities and went on to lose 7-2 in the tiebreaker.

Playing from behind early in the second set, Yip/Park found their stride midway through and were able to better read the match and execute, with Yip hitting big from the ground and Park controlling the net.

They managed to get two breaks of serve to close out the set, 6-4, and forced the match to go to a third set super tiebreaker, which would determine who would go to the championship match (per tournament rules, in lieu of a full third set, a tiebreaker to 10 is played).

Things did not start well, with Yip/Park falling behind 2-5; but with steady play and resolve, they knotted the tiebreaker at 6-6 and “kept their foot on the pedal.” After 2 hours and 15 minutes of quality tennis from both sides, they emerged with a thrilling 10-6 victory.

As the last court playing, and with all eyes watching, it had the feel of a finals match; and when it was over, Yip/Park celebrated winning the best match of the tournament, 6-7(2), 6-4, 10-6.

With all the energy, emotion, and mental focus that the semifinals took, however, and with Yip’s injury not getting any better, Yip/Park had a hard time ramping back up in the final, as they faced the undefeated top seed from Geffen.

They immediately fell behind 5-0 before registering their first game.

After losing the first set, 6-1, they were able to raise their level and bounce back to take a 2-1 lead.

From there, most of the games went to multiple deuces, with Yip/Park holding multiple game points in each game.

But their opponents were the top seed for a reason.

Though they did not play a spectacular style of tennis, they rarely made unforced errors and were the steadier team with solid execution.

They were not going to beat themselves.

In the end, they were just that much better in this match, defeating Yip/Park, 6-1, 6-3.

In producing an unexpected 2nd place finish, Yip/Park have much to be proud of.

The championship match was expected to be between the top two seeds from Geffen, each coming in with unblemished undefeated records.

As the only non-Geffen doubles team to make the semifinals, they introduced themselves into the conversation of being amongst the league’s elite doubles teams.

With the CIF-SS playoffs coming next week, the Minutemen hope Yip/Park will be able to continue to ride the wave of improvement and grit they’ve developed in recent weeks and lead the team to playoff success.

The Minutemen eagerly await their playoff assignment, as CIF-SS will reveal the division assignments and playoff draws on Monday, May 5 for all playoff qualifiers of the CIF Southern Section.

The first round of playoffs begins on Wednesday, May 7.