Tennis: La Cañada's Season Ends With Loss to Northwood

Generally a home match against a team that finished fourth in its league is a favorable draw for any CIF-Southern Section playoff squad.

But the La Canada boys tennis team faced the unfortunate circumstances of drawing Northwood of Irvine, the fourth place finisher in the Pacific Coast League, arguably the toughest in the nation.

The tough opponent, coupled with an injury to top singles player Joshua Kim ended the Spartans’ season Tuesday as Northwood earned a 13-5 Division 1 wildcard victory.

“They come from a heavy tennis league and it shows,” La Canada coach Will Moravec said. “These guys are a great team. They have 14 guys and they all play USTA (United States Tennis Association) tournaments.”

Northwood (13-6) lost all six of its matches to league rivals University of Irvine, Woodbridge of Irvine and Corona del Mar of Newport Beach.

La Canada (12-7) was playing up in Division 1 for the first time as the entire Rio Hondo League has moved up due to the success of San Marino.

“We played San Marino in the first league match and in doubles we didn’t win a set and lost 16-2,” Moravec said. “That’s when everyone got down and we didn’t realize how good we were. But they improved. Our guys started playing better and we played San Marino again we lost 11-7. All I can ask from these guys is that they improve. We have no seniors, so I’m looking forward to next year and the year after that.”

Leeho Lim played No. 1 singles for the Spartans as Kim had to watch from the sidelines with a cast on his leg due to a foot injury. Lim lost 0-6, 0-6, 6-7(7-5).

No. 2 singles player Andre Danuns fell 1-6, 1-6 and won 6-0 against Northwood No. 3 replacement singles player Philip Chen.

In the No. 3 spot, Ryan Kawamura fell 0-6 to Northwood No. 2 player Calvin Ngo and 0-6 to No. 3 Derek Lin.

La Canada’s David Oh replaced Kawamara in the third round after the match had already been decided and fell 6-1 to Kenny Oh, who was a replacement for Northwood No. 1 player Julian Ruffin.

In doubles, La Canada’s No. 1 team of Michael Cho and Tyler Jones fell 3-6, 3-6, before winning against Northwood’s replacement No. 3 team of Matt Prokop and Joseph Yoo, 6-3.

The Spartans’ No. 2 team of Liwon Lim and Ryan Lee went 2-6, 2-6, 6-3, with the win coming over Prokop and Yoo.

La Canada’s No. 3 team of Arthur Song and Joe Song went 7-6(7-0) over Northwood No. 1 doubles replacement team of Mark Tsugimura and Solei Meyappan. They lost to Northwood’s No. 2 team 0-6 and defeated Northwood’s original No. 3 team Alex Hibbard and Kevin Rhee 7-5.