Tennis Playoffs: San Marino, Arcadia Move On

There were no surprises for the San Marino boys tennis team Wednesday when the Titans opened the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs against visiting Los Alamitos.

Playing in the top division in the CIF after years of dominating in the lower levels, the Titans expected to a face a tough challenge and they got exactly that.

But in the end they were too strong for the visiting Griffins in an 11-7 victory.

“I thought their singles players were very solid,” San Marino coach John Kuramoto said. “We know Brandon (Schlack), their No. 1, and we know what a good singles player he is. Honestly, Cam Marco surprised us and also their No. 3. We’ll have to watch out for them in the future. They have some fine young singles players.”

San Marino (11-4) was too strong at the top of the lineup with singles players Jonny Wang and James Wade. Both earned sweeps.

Wang, who recently finished runner-up in the CIF bracket of the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, went 6-1 over Schlack, 6-2 over Marco and 6-0 over No. 3 player Boris Alenikov.

Wade went 6-0, 7-5, 6-1.

San Marino struggled in the No. 3 singles spot, where three players each played a set.

Tao Tao Lin fell 6-0 to Alenikov. Jeff Guichard lost 6-1 to Schlack and Matt Hsaiao lost 6-3 to Marco.

Los Alamitos (11-8) played the Titans tough in doubles, just a day after defeating Newbury Park 13-5 in a wild-card match.

San Marino’s No. 1 team of Robert Carter and Nicholas Splichal won 7-6 (7-3) over Los Alamitos’ No. 1 team of Jonathan Kwalk and Daniel Esparza, 6-2 over the No. 2 team of Mike Davidson and Jared Hong and 6-1 over the No. 3 team of Noah Lilien and Alex Tran.

The Titans’ No. 2 team of Mark Lew and Kevin Yin went 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 7-5.

In the No. 3 doubles spot, San Marino’s Jason Lui and Gordon Yoon opened with a 6-1 loss to Lilien and Tran. Kerry Chen and Justin Bu then substituted in and fell 6-2 to Kwalk and Esparza and 6-2 to Davison and Hong.

San Marino will now play Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates at a site to be determined in the second round Friday. Peninsula defeated Campbell Hall 16-2 in the first round.

The Titans fell to the Panthers 12-6 earlier in the season.

“It’s going to be a tough match. We have a couple of ideas if we want to hopefully employ that will be useful for us,” Kuramoto said. “It is what it is this time of the season. You have to go with what you’ve got. We know we’ve got a tough match. There is no easy task. There is no easy road. You just have to go after it as hard as you can.”

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Second-seeded Arcadia had a very easy time in opening the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs with an 18-0 win over visiting Laguna Hills. The Apaches only gave up 13 total games, including just three in doubles.

Laguna Hills (6-12), the third place team from the Sea View League, had defeated Cathedral City 14-4 on Monday to advance to the first-round match.

“I thought we played well. Our singles were strong and doubles just totally dominated,” Arcadia coach Jerry Dohling said. “That was good to see. We know that to go far in the playoffs everybody has to be able to contribute and we had a nice balance today.”

Arcadia’s No. 1 singles player Travis Tu swept 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 over Dan Bilke, Austin Shiras and Theo Medling. In No. 2 singles, Arcadia’s Andrew You went 6-0, 6-1, before being substituted by Matt Rapkin, who defeated Medling 6-4.

Albert Chen, the Apaches’ No. 3 player, cruised 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.

In doubles, Arcadia’s No. 1 team of George Chiu and Hardy Lou went 6-1 over the team of Joe Fastuca and Spencer Samuel, 6-0 over the team of Zach Ip and Charles Auer and 6-0 over the team of Koosha Azertsh and Peter Le.

Arcadia’s No. 2 team of Arnav and Appooru Chaudhary went 6-1, 6-0 before being substituted by Alvin Su and Ryan Chuang, who defeated Azertsh and Le 6-0.

Arcadia’s No. 3 team of Dustin Lieu and Eric Gao went 6-1, 6-0, 6-0.

The Apaches will face Diamond Bar in the second round at a site to be determined. Diamond Bar defeated South Hills 14-4 in the first round.

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La Salle’s season ended with a first-round loss in the Division 5 playoffs to top-seeded Arlington of Riverside.

The Lancers defeated South El Monte 13-5 in a wild card on Tuesday to advance to the first round.

Freshman Garrett Mak swept his three singles sets against Arlington by going 6-0, 6-2, 6-0.

The Lancers also got a victory in doubles from the No. 1 team of Austin Fitzgerald and Arthur Chi, who defeated Arlington’s No. 3 team 6-4.

No. 2 singles player Jordan Adams earned a 6-4 victory as he defeated Arlington’s No. 3 singles player.

“If we didn’t have to face Arlington right away, I think we would have (gone pretty far),” La Salle coach Tim Pawley said.