Boys’ Tennis: Sage moves into quarters
OAK PARK — Sage Hill School senior Gordon Strelow had quite an eventful Friday.
Strelow took the AP Microeconomics test Friday morning, along with Sage Hill boys’ tennis teammate Amir Soleimany. At 10 a.m., while Strelow and Soleimany were taking the test, the Lightning learned that their CIF Southern Section Division 2 second-round playoff match at Oak Park would be played as scheduled, with the threat of rain waning.
The Lightning left Newport Coast for the tennis match soon after the test completed. A few hours later, Strelow had another test to try to solve. He was substituted into the doubles lineup in the second round with the score tied 3-3.
“He may not have the strokes the other people have, but he’s played football [as a kicker] and soccer [as a center back] at a high level,” Sage Hill Coach A.G. Longoria said. “I kind of went with a guy that’s been in pressure situations and a senior.”
The move paid off. Strelow and freshman Ash Etedali won perhaps the most crucial set of the match, a 6-4 victory over Oak Park’s Jack Berner and Aaron Lin that gave the Lightning their ninth set win.
No. 4-seeded Sage Hill was on its way to a tight 10-8 victory at Oak Park High and a spot in the Division 2 quarterfinals. The Lightning just have to wait a bit longer to know their opponent.
They’ll play either Crescenta Valley or Walnut in the quarterfinals Monday at The Tennis Club Newport Beach. The Walnut at Crescenta Valley second-round match was postponed until Saturday at 2 p.m., due to the rain.
The Sage Hill (14-5) win over Oak Park (10-6) was a gutsy one. Longoria said his team was without three varsity players, including a pair of sophomores, Han Chin and Grant Janavs, who usually start in doubles. Chin and Janavs were performing at a school concert Friday.
With the two sophomores out, Longoria had to shuffle up his doubles teams.
“We knew some guys had to step up,” said senior Shayan Emtiaz, who won twice at No. 1 doubles with freshman Will Sanderson. “We weren’t planning to use too deep of the bench, but after round one we had to. Those guys stepped up. Calvin Brown, Gordon Strelow, those guys absolutely stepped up.”
Like Strelow, Brown subbed in during the second round. He and fellow freshman Ian Huang earned Sage Hill’s eighth set win in the second round, a 6-4 victory over Oak Park’s Trent Lee and Adam Kessler. It was Lee and Kessler who had rallied for a 7-5 victory over Etedali and his older brother Kian in the first round, tying the match score at 3-3.
Adam Langevin, Kenan Torlic and Omead Moini each won twice in singles for Sage Hill.
David Goulak swept for the Coastal Canyon League champion Eagles in singles, as did the doubles team of Bobby Yang and Justin Zilberstein. But Sage Hill was just a bit too deep.
The Lightning led, 9-6 on sets and 69-53 on games, following Strelow and Ash Etedali’s big victory.
“It was a tough one,” Strelow said. “We were down 4-1, but then after that, Ash and I strung a couple of games together and we got back into it. Once we got back tied up and got the lead, we knew we were going to win from there.”
There were still three doubles sets remaining after the win, but barring a collapse of Los Angeles Clippers proportions, the Lightning were going to win the match. The Sage doubles teams quickly earned the three combined games required to guarantee the victory.
Strelow said he didn’t expect to start Friday’s match, but hoped he would be able to contribute at some point.
“I knew that since we were playing with some new teams, we would have to do some retooling, readjusting,” he said.
Longoria expects his full team back for Monday’s quarterfinal at home. If the Lightning win that match, they could earn a date with top-seeded Santa Margarita in the semifinals on Wednesday.
“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to get the girls and boys to the quarterfinals,” said Longoria, whose boys lost in the first round last year to Foothill. “The girls got there, with an incredible [10-8] win [over Santa Monica] to get to the quarters. We’re trying to sneak in under the radar. We’re letting [Sage] baseball and soccer and girls’ volleyball have all the glory.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be the last team standing from Costa Mesa and Newport Beach after today, but now it’s going to be kind of hard to hide.”
