Breakers Prove There's Nothing More Fun Than Winning

One. Step. Closer.

Laguna Beach High's boys tennis team secured its spot in the Final Four of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs with a 14-4 victory over Alhambra Wednesday afternoon at Laguna Beach High. 

And the Breakers enjoyed doing it.

“The kids are having fun. That’s why they play well,” Laguna Beach coach Peter Davidson said. “If you’re enjoying yourself, you are going to play better.”

How couldn’t the Breakers be having the times of their lives?  They are the Orange Coast League champions, they swept the league's individual tournament and now they are in the team championship semifinals.  There is a lot to smile about.

Alhambra, on the other hand, wasn’t having such a great time against Laguna Beach.  The Almont League co-champions, who finished league play at 10-1, had their team season come to an end with the one-sided loss to the second-seeded Breakers.  

Alhambra coach Jeff Levie said of Laguna Beach: “They are playing high quality tennis.  Exceptional tennis. Playing like a beast. The Breakers look more like a Division 1 team.” 

Levie added that he was very proud of his team and that they had no regrets about their season.

Sophomore Teague Hamilton may have had the most fun of all on Wednesday. He swept his singles sets, 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0. From the start, Hamilton overpowered his competition. In his opening match against junior Ryan Lu, Hamilton smashed forehand after forehand cross court in a show of power tennis. His fast serve allowed him to control points all day.

 “I was just trying to keep the ball in the court,” he said. “I tried to always make my first serve.”

Not to be outdone, the Breakers doubles team of senior Benito Romeo and junior Hutton Mckenna did not drop a single game in its sweep. Romeo and Hutton controlled the net and hit volley after volley for winners. In the second round, the duo won so quickly you had to wonder if, perhaps, Alhambra had forfeited the set, but no, the Laguna Beach team simply made quick work of its opponents, junior Albert He and sophomore Derrick Zhang.

“[McKenna and I] worked on a bunch of drills in practice and today it just all kinda fell together,” Romeo said. “It was a good day.”

The most competitive match of the day was the opener on the main court between Laguna Beach senior Jake Michaels and Alhambra junior Brendan Ma. With a relatively large crowd, including Michaels' friends, in attendance, the Breakers' No. 1 singles players won the tight match, 6-4.

Ma had success by approaching the net in the opening game.  He held his serve to go up 1-0. The match was marked by long rallies as each player covered the court very well and kept balls in play.  With the set at 4-3 in favor of Michaels, Ma hit a big backhand to bring the game to 40-30.  On the next crucial point, Michaels matched Ma’s backhand with a forehand winner to go up 5-3.  At 5-4, the deciding game started with a 20-shot rally during which Michaels was able to break through his opponent's strength by hitting a backhand passing shot as Ma approached the net.  Michaels closed it out with an ace, followed by an overhand smash.

“Today, I was able to get all the balls in and kept hitting them deep,” Michaels said.  “We had a big crowd, which made it fun.  I really appreciated all of them showing up.”

The Breakers were feeling great after the victory but the team was also well aware it still needed to win two more matches to claim a section championship.

Next up for Laguna Beach is a Tuesday trip for a semifinal match at third-seeded Santa Ynez. While the Breakers have not played Santa Ynez nor have they seen the Pirates play this season, former Laguna Beach tennis coach, Art Wall, is also the former coach of Santa Ynez. He has told Davidson that the Pirates have very strong No. 1's in singles and doubles but cannot match the Breakers' depth.

I’m feeling pretty good about it," said Davidson, when asked about Laguna Beach's chances of winning a section title. "This is my first year coaching and I know the quality of tennis is going to get better, but the lower members in our lineup [Nos. 2 and 3 singles and doubles] are better than others.  The depth of this team is what makes the difference.”

The Breakers players are feeling pretty good about their chances too. “I’m so stoked about the semis,” Romeo said. “We are not going to underestimate anyone. If we play our hearts out, we can do something.”

Seconding Romeo’s sentiment was Michaels. “We want it so bad. Not a kid on this team doesn’t want it. I probably want it more than ever, given it’s my last year.  If we play our best, then no one can beat us.”