Tennis: CdM, Peninsula take care of business

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Top-seeded Peninsula High and third-seeded host

Corona del Mar breezed through the first round and quarterfinals Friday

in the second annual CdM National High School Boys Tennis All-American

Team Invitational.

But not all the top teams survived a grueling opening day to advance

to today’s semifinals.

Fourth-seeded Brentwood was upset in the quarterfinals by Clovis West

of Fresno and highly regarded Beverly Hills was dropped in the first

round by Monta Vista of Cupertino.

Monta Vista was knocked out in the quarterfinals, 8-1, by

second-seeded Menlo, last year’s finalists in the inaugural tournament.

Menlo will face CdM on the Sea Kings’ courts at 11:30 a.m. today in the

semifinals.

Defending tournament and national champion Peninsula will square off

against Clovis West at 11:30 a.m. in the other semifinal at Park Newport

Apartments.

Menlo Coach Bill Shine, whose team lost to Peninsula in last year’s

final, 7-1, was apparently unhappy with having to play CdM on its home

courts and had the school’s athletic director call tournament director

and CdM Coach Tim Mang on his cell phone Friday afternoon to argue that

it wasn’t fair.

“I’m not changing the entire tournament and taking other teams off

courts at the last minute just to accommodate one team,” Mang said. “And,

plus, it’s no advantage for us to play (at CdM). It’s an advantage for us

here (at tournament headquarters Palisades Tennis Club). Do you know who

will be over there (at CdM)? A couple of cross country runners will be

going through.”

In the first round at the Palisades Club, CdM defeated Horace Mann

School of Riverdale, N.Y., 8-1, then handled Brophy College Prep of

Phoenix, Ariz., in the quarterfinals, 8-1.

“Yeah, I’m a little surprised (with some of Friday’s lopsided

scores),” said Mang, who started the tournament last year as a barometer

for the USA Today year-end national rankings and as a way to promote high

school tennis on a nationwide scale.

The 16-school event, which features a dozen teams from California,

guarantees four matches for every team. The format consists of six

singles and three doubles in an eight-game pro set, which plays to the

strength of teams with a lot of talent depth like Peninsula and CdM.

“This is a great tournament,” said Brophy College Prep Coach Bill

Woods said. “It’s definitely the highlight of our season to come here. We

just played a great Corona del Mar team (in the quarterfinals). You don’t

expect to win. We’re just not that deep and we also lost our No. 2 kid

(senior Nick Weber because of a broken bone in his foot).”

After last year’s performance in the tournament, Brophy was considered

a tough draw in 2001 with all but one of its players returning from a

squad that captured its fifth straight large-school state championship in

Arizona.

In last year’s CdM national tournament, Brophy lost to eventual

finalist Menlo, 5-4, in the first round, then rallied to win the

consolation title.

But, this time, CdM simply had too much. The Sea Kings, 4-0 this year

in CIF-formatted matches (in which nine players are in the lineup,

instead of six), swept the Broncos in singles, 6-0. UCI-bound senior

Brian Morton, junior and defending Pacific Coast League singles champion

Cameron Ball, sophomore Garrett Snyder and seniors Randy Myers, Michael

Bean and Peter Kulmaticki all won.

In doubles, the CdM teams of Morton-Snyder and Myers-Bean earned

victories.

“We were bringing back the same team as last year, except at No. 6,

and we honestly thought we’d do a little better,” Woods said. “Our

strength is at four, five and six, but their (CdM) kids are just too

tough. We’re definitely behind everybody else’s top kids, but our bottom

kids can play with anybody’s. But we still lose those matches.”

Peninsula also cruised, easily knocking off Mills in the first round

and Jesuit of Sacramento in the quarterfinals.

After Clovis West beat Torrey Pines in the first round, the Golden

Eagles upset Brentwood, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at the Costa Mesa

Tennis Center. Brentwood is the defending CIF Southern Section Division

IV champion.

In a mild upset, Monta Vista edged Beverly Hills, 5-4, in the first

round.

Today’s championship match begins at 5 p.m. at the Palisades Club.