Boys tennis: Mind games

Joseph Boo

IRVINE - Corona del Mar High’s boys tennis had no trouble in

Thursday’s CIF Southern Section Division I second-round match with

Irvine. Even without Cameron Ball the Sea Kings cruised to a 14-4 victory

over the host Vaqueros.

With a trip to the quarterfinals wrapped up, CdM (19-7 and the No. 3

seed) looked ahead to the next task at hand. But not to Tuesday’s

quarterfinal match against Dana Hills, with the site of that match to be

determined by a coin flip.

Instead, CdM was anticipating the first day of the CIF individual

championships Saturday. CdM’s sectional is at the Costa Mesa Tennis

Center.

Among the schools at Costa Mesa are three teams that beat CdM, Brentwood,

Division I’s No. 1 squad Peninsula and University, the Division II’s No.

1 team which won the Pacific Coast League championship over CdM.

“Eight of the top-ranked teams are at Costa Mesa,” CdM Coach Tim Mang

said. “It’s unbelievable. Any of our kids who advance will probably face

each other early and knock each other out.”

Irvine, the Sea View League’s No. 3 representative and 11-9 overall, is also in the Costa Mesa sectional and the Vaqueros got a sobering look at

some of the players it might see again.

CdM’s No. 1 singles player, Brian Morton, had little trouble against the

Vaqueros, sweeping his three sets, 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.

“Brian played very well today,” Mang said.

CdM also got sweeps from its top two doubles teams. Peter Kulmaticki and

Michael Bean breezed to 6-4, 6-0, 6-1 wins, and Randy Myers and Robert

Kennedy cleaned up with 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 victories.

According to Mang, his doubles teams are the key to quarterfinal match

with Dana Hills.

“We played them once before this year (a 12-6 CdM victory) and our

doubles are a lot improved since then,” he said.

Ball sat out the second-round match to rest for Saturday, so junior

Hunter Jack moved up to the No. 2 singles spot for CdM. After dropping

his first set to Eric Aarnaes, 4-6, he came back with 6-2, 6-4 victories.

“He’s still getting used to playing again,” Mang said of Jack, who didn’t

play for the majority of the season.

CdM’s No. 3 doubles team of Brian Warsaw and Landon Everson captured two

of three sets. CdM’s No. 3 singles player Shaan Wadhwa won one set all

day, but it was a solid triumph against Irvine’s No. 1 player, Hadley Ogle.

CIF SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION I

Second Round

Corona del Mar 14, Irvine 4

Singles - Morton (CdM) def. Ogle, 6-0, def. Aarnaes, 6-3, def. Park, 6-0;

Jack (CdM) won 6-4, lost 4-6, won 6-2; Wadhwa won 6-3, lost 0-2 retired,

1-6.

Doubles - Kulmaticki-Bean (CdM) def. A. Wang-J. Wang, 6-4, def.

Robbins-Pang, 6-0, def. Gilleland-Tzeng, 6-1; Myers-Kennedy (CdM) won

6-1, 6-2, 6-0; Warsaw-Everson (CdM) lost 1-6, won 6-4, 6-3.