Tennis: Arcadia Comes Up Short in League Finals

Arcadia swept through the Pacific League boys’ tennis season without a blemish.

But when it came to the league’s individual tournament, things turned a little different for the Apaches as they came up short at Pasadena High School on Wednesday afternoon.

Defending league doubles champions George Chiu and Hardy Lou fell 6-4, 6-2 to Burroughs of Burbank’s Wen Yao Lin and Oscar Lam in the doubles final.

“They couldn’t get a break against Burroughs and if you can’t break them at least one time, you can’t win,” Arcadia coach Jerry Dohling said. “Overall, I thought they played pretty good.”

Arcadia’s top singles player, junior Travis Tu, missed the tournament as he was part of Arcadia’s Science Bowl team that competed in the National Championship in Washington D.C. over the weekend and did not return until Tuesday.

“He’ll be with us for the playoffs,” Dohling said.

His absence on Monday, when the preliminaries were held, opened up the tournament as he and Burroughs’ Garrett Auproux were clearly the two top players in the league.

“I heard he was going to a Washington trip,” Auproux said. “I’m good friends with him, so I knew he was going to the science competition.”

Seventh-seeded Oleg Simonyan of Hoover in Glendale upset second-seeded Albert Chen of Arcadia 6-2, 1-6, 10-7 in the singles quarterfinals. Chen had defeated Hoover’s Emile Ohanyan 6-2, 6-0 in the first round.

Simonyan also upset third-seeded Andrew You of Arcadia 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals.

“Andrew played against Hoover’s kid and it didn’t seem like he had good legs today,” Dohling said.

You defeated Glendale’s John Azizian 6-0, 6-0 in the first round and Michael Whelan of Burroughs 6-2, 7-6 in the second round.

Lou credited the Burroughs team with winning the doubles title.

“They were playing really well,” Lou said. “My serve was a little off, but it probably didn’t make much of a difference. They pretty much won it fair and square.”

Arcadia’s doubles team of Dustin Lieu and Eric Gao defeated Burbank’s Kevin Banares and Kenneth Banares 6-2, 6-4 in the first round. They lost to Burroughs’ team of Lin and Lam 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.

The Apache doubles team of Alvin Su and Ryan Chuang fell in the first round to Glendale’s Jeff Asano and Elliott Kim 6-4, 6-1.

Crescenta Valley did not have any players advance to the semifinal or finals round.

In singles, Chris Kim lost in the first round to Glendale’s Michael Unanian, 6-4, 6-3. Justin Chong fell to Simonyan 6-3, 6-1.

The doubles team of Jeremy Cho and Tim Chong earned a 6-4, 6-1 win over Glendale’s Rene Glandian and Sam Sarian in the first round before bowing out in the second.