Sports
Kehrer Reaches Tennis Semifinals in Ojai
The Stanford sophomore makes the final four of the Pac-10 Invitational singles.
The 111th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament is in full swing in Ventura County and a familiar Palisadian has survived the second day.
In the Pacific-10 men's Invitational singles division, Stanford sophomore beat Matt Stith of Washington, 7-6 (4), 7-5, Friday at noon. Kehrer meets California's Zach Gilbert in the semifinals Saturday at Libbey Park South with a spot in Sunday's 8 a.m. final at stake.
Kehrer, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, won the Pacific-10 Invitational doubles title last season with Greg Hirshman. This year, he and his new partner Daniel Ho were moved up to the Pac-10 Championship division and they were trying to beat two UCLA duos Friday to earn a spot in the semifinals. First, they edged Clay Thompson and Max Truong, 9-8 (5), then they were knocked off by Warren Hardie and Amit Inbar, 8-4.
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Hardie and Inbar will play top-seeded Ryan Thacher and Bradley Klahn of Stanford on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Libbey Park for a spot in Sunday's 12:30 p.m. final.
Another local player looking to stay alive was , who was vying for a spot in the semifinals of the boys' CIF singles division with two wins on Friday. Pura, the No. 1 player at , easily won his morning match with Jack McCullers of Mission Hills, 6-3, 6-4, but fell to Poway's Dylan Trent, 6-2, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.
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Trent plays Gage Brymer of Irvine University in the semifinals Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at Libbey Park, with the winner advancing to the final at 2 p.m. at the same site.
On the opposite half of the CIF singles draw was senior , who won his two matches Thursday to remain in the hunt in the 64-player draw. Thornton played Johnny Wang of San Marino in the round of 16 Friday morning at Thacher School and was defeated in three grueling sets, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4.
In the boys' 16s singles divison, Palihi's took on fourth-seeded Kei Ezaka of Ojai on Friday at Thacher and Ezaka won, 6-3, 6-1.
In the girls' 16s singles, Palisadian won her first two matches on Thursday to reach the round of 16. She took on Ojai's Aurora Garrison on Friday morning at Villanova School and Oleynik prevailed, 6-2, 6-1. Her run ended in the quarterfinals, where she lost, 6-2, 6-3, to fourth-seeded Jessica Perez of Laguna Niguel.
