108TH OJAI VALLEY TENNIS TOURNAMENT:

OJAI — For Charlie Alvarado and Chris Freeman, the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament has been about constant improvement.

The Mater Dei High juniors, who are both Costa Mesa residents, made it to the quarterfinals of the CIF doubles division two years ago as freshmen. Last year, they advanced to the semifinals before losing in a tough three-set match to a Santa Barbara team.

But this year, there was no denying third-seeded Alvarado and Freeman. They came up huge in the big points Saturday, winning the CIF doubles title at the 108th annual tournament by topping top-seeded Tyler Bowman and Jon Kazarian of Peninsula High, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

“It’s a little surreal, but this is what we worked for,” Alvarado said. “We set our minds to reaching the finals or winning it, and that’s what we did.”

Danielle Kaiden and Paige Polizois were also winners Saturday at Libbey Park. In the girls’ 18 doubles division, the top-seeded Corona del Mar High juniors topped two Sea Kings teammates, Karen Ishii and Kelli Feeley, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4. It was the second straight time a doubles team from CdM won the title, as twin sisters Miranda and Hayley Young were the champs last year.

“It was more tension [playing teammates in the final], but hey, it happens,” Kaiden said. “At least we all made it to the finals. That was the best part of it.”

Three other players or teams with local connections will also play for a title today. Corona del Mar resident Cierra Gaytan-Leach, playing in women’s open doubles with Pamela Montez of La Quinta, advanced to the finals. Gaytan-Leach and Montez upset No. 2-seeded Page Bartelt of Mission Viejo and Logan Hansen of Santa Monica in the semis, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. They also defeated Mauren Diaz of Glendale and Anita Loyola of Hermosa Beach, 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.

Gaytan-Leach and Montez will play top-seeded Judith Devera of Carson and Dianne Matias of Torrance in the final, today at 2 p.m. at Libbey Park.

Former CdM boys’ standout Wes Miller, now a junior for Arizona State, will also be playing for a title today. Miller, seeded No. 4 in the Pac-10 invitational singles draw, defeated David Chu of Washington, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals Saturday morning.

Miller will face No. 2-seeded Bozhidar Katsarov of Cal in the Pac-10 invitational championship match today at 9:30 a.m., also at Libbey Park.

Also, in the women’s community college doubles division, Orange Coast’s Brittany Bass and Brittnie Furuvald advanced to the final by topping Erina Hung and Andrea Warren of Saddleback, 6-4, 6-4. They’ll play Brianna McClintock and Vanessa Reibstein of Grossmont College in the final today at 3:30 at Libbey Park.

Bass is also still alive in women’s community college singles, where she’ll play Reibstein in the semifinals today at 8 a.m. at Libbey Park South.

Corona del Mar High senior Fabian Matthews wasn’t as fortunate. Matthews, the top seed who said he’d been feeling sick throughout the tournament, vomited three times early in the third set of his CIF singles division semifinal match against Reese Milner of Crossroads High of Santa Monica. Milner won the match, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Alvarado and Freeman, who usually play singles at Mater Dei, focus on teaming up at Ojai every year. They defeated University High’s Jason Lin and Ryan Cheung, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals on Saturday morning at Thacher School. However, they had lost, 8-3, to Bowman and Kazarian at the CdM All-American Tournament earlier this year.

After splitting their first two sets in the final at Ojai, they went ahead, 5-4, in the final set by breaking Peninsula’s serve. But Alvarado was down love-40 in his own service game, before the team came back and won the game, and the match, when Freeman hit a winning volley.

Alvarado had two aces in the game.

“I was like, ‘Good God,’ ” Alvarado said. “It was just one point at a time, and a lot of deep breathing. Fortunately, I got those three serves in [to get the game back to deuce], and closed out with two big serves.”

There is a new strategy this year for the Mater Dei duo. When one of the players serves, the other waggles fingers behind his back, like a baseball catcher calling signs. The location of the finger indicates where the serve should go. Thus, Alvarado and Freeman are able to more easily prepare for a possible return.

“We’ve grown up together,” Freeman said. “We definitely know where we are on the court, and it definitely helps. Communication plays a big role.”

Matthews was also familiar with his semifinal opponent, Milner. They battled in very close singles and doubles matches at last year’s All-American Tournament — both won by CdM.

This time, Matthews was down, 4-1, in the first set before rallying to win it.

“I told him, ‘You set up your points, you’ll go right through this guy,’ ” CdM Coach Tim Mang said. “He did, but then he started running out of gas.”

The second set was on-serve before Matthews was broken in the 10th game, allowing Milner to even the match.

In the third set, Matthews vomited just after breaking Milner to open the set. He managed to hold serve to go up, 2-0, but his unforced errors allowed Milner to win the last six games, denying Matthews a chance at a sort of repeat.

Matthews and CdM graduate Dustin Hladek won the CIF division doubles title at Ojai in 2007, going on their way to their second straight CIF Individuals title.

“After the first set I felt really good,” the UC Irvine-bound Matthews said. “At the end of the second set, start of the third, that’s when I started feeling weird … I just felt really tired, so I was trying to go for too much. I just wanted to have quick points. I couldn’t last in a rally.”

Newport Beach resident Ali Walters lost in the girls’ 18 semifinals, 7-6 (9), 6-4, Saturday morning to top-seeded Kaitlyn Christian of Orange.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].