Cabrillo Boys’ Tennis – Thorpe Tennis

Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis Off to 2-1 Start in Young Season

It’s not just the season that’s young at Laguna Blanca: the team is compromised almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores, with just one senior and one junior added in for good measure.

Despite their youthful composition, the Owls are off to a solid start to the season, taking two-of-three matches against non-league opponents in the opening weeks of play.

Laguna Blanca @ Orcutt Academy: 7-2 Win

Laguna Blanca boys’ tennis won its first match of the season against Orcutt Academy, 7-2. The Owls traveled to Alan Hancock College in Santa Maria for the match, played using the CIF Central Section scoring format.

In singles, Laguna nearly swept, winning 5-of-6 sets, with the #1 spot a hard-fought 4-8 loss. Freshman Oliver Tande held up under pressure for an 8-6 win at the #2 position, while classmate Keanu Christiansen record an 8-0 win at the #5 position. Sophomore team captain Noah Mitev came from behind to register an 8-6 win at #3 singles, followed by an 8-4 win from his classmate Enzo Vinoly.

In doubles, the Owls top team of Tande/Vinoly lost a tight 7-9 pro-set, while Mitev and freshman Wyatt Burt picked up the 8-6 win.

Laguna Blanca @ Santa Ynez: 2-7 Loss

Despite the scoreboard, the Owls came very close to pulling off the upset in Santa Ynez, with experience seeming to make the difference in close sets.

With doubles played first, captains Mason Berg and Noah Mitev battled gamely, but were unable to overcome the tournament-level experience of the Santa Ynez #1 team of Bryce Wilczak and Lucas Doman.

The #2 and #3 doubles positions offered better opportunities for victory, but it was not to be. Freshman/sophomore combo Oliver Tande/Enzo Vinoly got off to a slow start and were not able to make up enough ground, falling 6-8. Meanwhile, on court 3, junior/sophomore combo Lucas Ayala/Connor Murphy held a 7-4 lead before Santa Ynez came charging back for a 9-7 win.

In singles play, Laguna got wins from Tande and fellow freshman Wyatt Burt at the #2 and #6 positions, respectively. Tande was particularly impressive, with a surgical performance that saw him upset a higher-rated Doman (6-3, 6-2).

Freshman Keanu Christian held a 4-1 first-set lead before succumbing 6-7, 4-6 in a very close match at #5 singles, while sophomores Noah Mitev and Enzo Vinoly both dropped competitive matches at #3 and #4 singles (5-7, 4-6; 4-6, 3-6, respectively).

Laguna Blanca v. Cabrillo/Lompoc: 13-5 Win

After falling to Santa Ynez on Tuesday, Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis rebounded sharply yesterday, earning a 13-5 win over visiting Cabrillo High School of Lompoc.

The match featured a near-sweep of the singles sets, with captain Mason Berg picking up his first 3 wins of the season, along with 3 from freshman Oliver Tande, who is now 5-0 on the season in singles play. Freshman Wyatt Burt added 2 set-wins, giving the Owls an 8-1 advantage.

In doubles, no team went undefeated, with Laguna Blanca pairings Keanu Christiansen/Enzo Vinoly and Noah Mitev/Lucas Ayala both finishing 2-1 on the day. Freshman Matthew McDermott saw his first action of the season, pairing with sophomore Changzheng Yu for a 1-2 result across their three sets of play.

Coach Thorpe’s Comments:

We are a young team, so of course we had a few slip-ups throughout the course of these early matches, but the effort level has been high throughout. Importantly, we’re improving at a rapid rate and still managing to be competitive so far against these CIF Central Section teams in pre-season play.

We’ve got an even bigger test ahead on Monday against Arroyo Grande, but hopefully that prepares us well for our league opener against Foothill Tech next Friday. Both games will be played at home, so that should help!

Owls Move to 2-0 with 15-3 Road Win

Laguna Blanca made it two-for-two in early-season matches, taking a 15-3 victory over Cabrillo High School in Lompoc today.

The win was bolstered by three 6-0 sets from Ryan Purkait at the #2 singles position. Purkait, a junior who spent the majority of the last two seasons at #1 doubles, is now 6-0 on the season as a singles player.

Laguna’s Playoff Run Ends in Quarterfinal Round

FullSizeRender 5 Our playoff streak ended at three wins last night, with a defeat coming at the hands of Downey High School in Los Angeles. The CIF Quarterfinal appearance was my sixth in 16 seasons of coaching high school teams in Santa Barbara, but the first for my boys’ team. In fact, it’s the deepest playoff run for Laguna tennis that can be recalled by athletic program staff going back at least twenty years. Here are the final two match recaps:

Laguna Blanca v. Cabrillo/Lompoc (14-4)

On Friday, the Owls validated their position as the #5-seed in CIF Division 4 with a resounding 14-4 win over Cabrillo/Lompoc. The Round-of-16 match was held at Laguna Blanca on a beautiful Santa Barbara day.

Cabrillo entered the match with a 16-2 record and the beginning of the match was close, with Laguna leading 3-2 and one tight doubles match still in play. Freshmen Rhami Zeini and John-Henry Schulz took a 6-4 victory at the #2 doubles position to put Laguna ahead 4-2 after the first round of play. From that point on, it was nearly all Laguna in the win column for the rest of the match.

Junior Alex Furukawa remains undefeated in playoff play, recording 6-1, 6-1, and 6-4 victories on the day and juniors Conor Scheinberg and Jason Barnick continued their unbeaten streak in the playoffs at #1 doubles. In fact, Laguna Blanca doubles swept Cabrillo in 9 sets-of-play, with Zeini and Schulz taking care of business at #2 doubles and Kelvin Chen and Kevin Khodabandehlou also winning all three sets.

Kai Nakamura and Victor Liu both defeated the Cabrillo #1 player Cedric Kwon, but fell two the #2-#3 players who were both playing in the their last high school match.

Laguna Blanca @ Downey (7-11)

Playing against a school with 4,200 students to make a team from was always going to be a challenge for the small private school, but Laguna Blanca held its own in many of the matchups.

Kai Nakamura won 2-of-3 sets and Alex Furukawa and Victor Liu each added wins against the Downey #3 position.

In doubles, Conor Scheinberg and Jason Barnick got off to an excellent start, defeating the Downey #1 doubles team in the first round (6-2) and eventually finishing 2-and-1 on the day. Kelvin Chen and Kevin Khodabandehlou added an impressive 6-4 victory over the #2’s in the final round of play (6-4); Chen and Khodabandehlou were 4-0 as a doubles pairing in the playoffs.

The Bottom Line

While this is the end of the season for Laguna, it’s only “part 1” for this team. The 12 players who traveled to the Downey match will all be back next season, looking to improve upon this quarterfinal appearance.

I’m very proud of the way my guys battled today, even as we recognized we where playing the last round of our season. We took the final round 4-2 against a Downey team that really didn’t have any weak points. We’re already looking ahead to next season and I know a lot of the guys are planning to work hard to in the off-season to be ready.