Mustangs Come Up Short Against Sea Hawks

In recent years, the Mira Costa Mustangs boys tennis team has held a steady advantage over crosstown rival Redondo Union.

That steady advantage came to an end on Tuesday after the Sea Hawks came up with a spirited 10-8 comeback win at home, largely spearheaded by the team's advantage in singles play. 

"Congratulations to Redondo," said Mira Costa coach Joe Ciasulli. "They played well and that was a good win for them.” 

The loss put the Mustangs at 9-7 this season and 1-2 in Bay League contests, having dropped a match to Peninsula earlier this month before defeating West Torrance.

The Mustangs were plagued by double faults and unforced errors, especially toward the end of the match, as the Sea Hawks would rally from an 8-7 deficit to sweep the final three singles sets and pick up the match victory.

“We are stronger with our doubles teams than our singles this year for sure,” Ciasulli said.

On the doubles side, the number one and two duos were able to pick up five of six sets as top duo Michael Carella and teammate Will Wong picked up a sweep with 6-4, 6-1 and 6-2 set wins.

“We played pretty good," said Wong. "We had some errors, but fought through and were able to come up with wins."

Senior Chris Stanbrook and Tom Wisset, the Mustangs' number two duo, won their first two sets 6-1, 6-1, but dropped their third to Redondo’s number one doubles team of Chris Lew and Paul Levchenko, 1-6.

“I think we are still getting used to each other and in tune with each other’s style of play,” Stanbrook said.

In singles action, senior Toni Cvitanic was unable to pick up a victory as he battled consistency issues in dropping his sets 1-6, 4-6 and the final set of the day a 6-7 (4) tiebreak loss that handed the outright match-win to the Sea Hawks.

“We lost a lot of good players from last year’s team, but we are just looking to play as much good tennis as we can and win some matches,” Stanbrook said.

Kyvan Elep had the best day for the Mustangs singles players, picking up wins of 6-2 and 6-4 before falling to Derek Levchenko 0-6.

Ben Sands picked up a 6-4 win, but lost his other sets 0-6, 3-6.