The Eastlake High School tennis program continues to showcase its talent, and now add Olympian High School to the list.
Both teams captured San Diego Section boys team championships last Saturday at the Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma.
Top-seeded Eastlake defeated second-seeded Scripps Ranch by a score of 10-8 to win the Division I title while top-seeded Olympian defeated second-seeded Sage Creek also by a 10-8 score to win the Division III title.
The CIF championships are the first for the boys tennis programs at both South County schools.
Specifically for Eastlake, the boys championship builds on the history-making Division III CIF title in girls tennis two years ago … and builds on last year’s Division II runner-up performance in boys tennis.
“It started with the girls and now it’s the boys,” an obviously elated EHS coach Alberto Ramos explained. “We won Division III in the girls and last year we took second in Division II for the boys. The guys won Division I this year. It’s amazing. It’s all about them.”
It was all about the showing by the Titans’ double teams in particular. Of Eastlake’s 10 wins to seal the CIF championship, seven wins came in doubles.
The No. 1 team of Kazuya Hayashi and Mauricio Rovira won by scores of 2-67, 6-1, 6-4 in their match-ups against each of the Falcons’ three doubles teams.
The No. 2 team of Alex Castañeda and Ignacio Araoz won by scores of 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.
The No. 3 doubles team of Antonio Sampiro and Spencer Masking won by scores of 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
“Usually teams have good singles players, but as the line-up goes down, the competition gets weaker in doubles,” Sampiro explained. “For Eastlake, all our lines are pretty solid. We placed our best players at doubles today.
“When you’re playing doubles, you have to be trusting and respectful of your partner.”
“The team that always has the best attitude usually wins,” Masking said.
“This is the best team we’ve had in history at Eastlake,” Sampiro noted.
Few might argue that. The Titans finished the season undefeated, regular season and playoffs combined.
Eastlake improved to 17-0 overall after winning this year’s Division I championship.
The Titans opened the playoffs on May 3 by defeating 16th-seeded Ramona by a score of 18-0. Eastlake then advanced to the quarterfinals on May 4 and defeated eighth-seeded Francis Parker 14-4.
The Mesa League champions (10-0 in league) then met fourth-seeded La Costa Canyon in the semifinals on May 5, winning by a score of 11-7.
Scripps Ranch, meanwhile, opened the playoffs by defeating 15th-seeded Serra by a score of 15-3, then eliminated 10th-seeded Poway also by a score of 15-3. The Falcons then defeated third-seeded Point Loma, 10-8, in the semifinals before finally bowing to the Titans.
Scripps Ranch finished 14-6 on the season.
A handful of Eastlake players returned from last year’s Division II runner-up team; much of what was achieved this year was through the influx of new players.
“I think we had three or four guys back,” Sampiro explained. “We have a lot of new players, which is very good. We were fortunate to get three very good freshmen.”
Each singles and doubles team plays each of the opposing team’s singles and doubles teams, so there are 18 sets per match.
Eastlake’s singles teams went 3-6 in its nine sets, for instance.
No. 1 singles players Santiago Araoz lost all three of his sets 0-6, 0-6, 2-6.
No. 2 singles player Jesus Osuna won all three of his sets 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.
No. 3 singles player Alan Lin lost all three of his sets 0-6, 0-6, 2-6.
Soaring Eagles
Olympian’s jump to CIF majesty came after the Eagles posted just a two-win season in 2015.
Olympian finished 13-2 this season after topping Sage Creek (10-7) last Saturday.
The Eagles went 7-2 in singles and 3-6 in doubles to secure their CIF championship.
No. 1 singles Marco Alvarez won all three of his sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
No. 2 singles player Pedro Meneses won two of his three sets 6-0, 1-6, 6-0.
No. 3 singles player Rodrigo Blanco won two of his three sets 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreaker), 2-6, 6-0.
The No. 1 doubles team of Chris DeLeon and Jae Choi lost all three of their sets 1-6, 1-6, 6-7.
The No. 2 doubles team of Jorge Castañeda and Aidan Lee won all three of their sets 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.
The No. 3 doubles team of Josef Urriete and Ben Saldana went 0-6, 2-6 after starting the first set with a different line-up.
Olympian defeated 16th-seeded Christian by a score of 13-5 in the opening round, then defeated eighth-seeded Mission Bay also by a score of 13-5 in the quarterfinals. The Eagles then flew past fifth-seeded West Hills by a score of 11-7 in the semifinals.
Sage Creek, which in its third year still has no senior class, topped 15th-seeded Morse in the first round by a score of 16-2 before eliminating seven-seeded Madison by a score of 12-6 in the quarterfinals. Sage Creek then dropped 11th-seeded El Camino by a score of 13-5 in the semifinals.
El Camino had made an upset bid by defeating sixth-seeded Chula Vista High Tech by a score of 12-6 in the opening round and then upending third-seeded Valley Center by a score of 13-5 in the quarterfinals.
Fourth-seeded San Dieguito Academy defeated third-seeded San Diego by a score of 12-6 to win this year’s Division II team championship. SDA upset No. 1-seeded Helix by a score of 12-6 in the semifinals while San Diego defeated seventh-seeded Mission Hills by a score of 10-8 in the semifinals.
The Division II bracket was filled with upsets as Mission Hills eliminated second-seeded Santa Fe Christian by a score of 13-5 in the quarterfinals and 12th-seedd Mira Mesa eliminated fifth-seeded Bonita Vista (10-6, 6-4 in league) by a score of 11-7 in the opening round.
A total of eight Metro Conference teams participated in this year ‘s section team playoffs. Besides Eastlake, Olympian and Bonita Vista, Sweetwater, mater Dei Catholic, Hilltop, San Ysidro and Otay Ranch also competed.
Sweetwater (seeded ninth) and Mater Dei Catholic (seeded 13th) both participated in the Division II bracket. Both teams ended their seasons in the opening round.
South Bay League champion Sweetwater (9-2, 8-0 in league) dropped an 11-7 match-up to eighth-seeded Grossmont while San Dieguito Academy eliminated the Crusaders (7-8, 4-6 in league) by a score of 14-4.
Hilltop, San Ysidro and Otay Ranch participated in the Division III bracket. San Ysidro lost a play-in match to Christian by a score of 11-7 while Hilltop and Otay Ranch both failed to advance past the first round.
Ninth-seeded Hilltop fell in a tie-breaker to eighth-seeded Mission Bay 78-62 in games after the teams each tied with nine wins. The Lancers finished 5-12 overall after finishing 2-8 in league play.
Otay Ranch (0-10, 0-10 in league) received the No. 14 seed but forfeited its match to third-seeded Valley Center.
