Title Defense Comes Up Long, Wide : High schools: La Jolla’s Conda fails to reach the finals, losing in three sets in the semifinals.

James Conda’s forehand shots were spraying everywhere but in, his backhand shots were mostly catching the net. He seldom had opportunities to hit an overhead shot and his volleys were rushed.

La Jolla’s Conda, last year’s San Diego Section singles champion and this year’s top seed, did not defend his title. He bowed out of high school tennis, losing 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, to third-seeded Joe Barbarie of University City in the singles semifinals Thursday at Rancho Arbolitos.

Conda had no one but himself to blame.

“I haven’t been playing that well,” Conda said. “I haven’t been working out. I’ve been relaxing too much.”

Huh?

“I don’t know why. I haven’t really felt like playing. I didn’t have the fire that I did last year,” he said. “I tried to get it going today, but it just wasn’t there. I didn’t feel confident with my shots.”

Barbarie, who said he beat Conda for the second time in six attempts, could tell something was wrong with Conda.

“He had more unforced errors than usual,” said Barbarie, who will attend UC Santa Barbara on a tennis scholarship. “And he looked slower than usual.

“Usually, he’s so calm out there. But when he gets behind you get that ‘Come on’ deal from him. When you get him talking, it’s a good sign.”

Said Conda: “If I get myself too excited, I try to rush everything. I wouldn’t even stop for my volleys.”

Barbarie broke Conda’s serve twice in the first set and early in the second. But Conda started to show some spirit when he broke Barbarie three straight times in the second set.

But Barbarie broke Conda easily in the first game of the third set and held his serve at love. When Conda wasn’t making unforced errors, Barbarie was hitting backhand winners down the line or drop volleys out of Conda’s reach.

“I just zoned,” Barbarie said. “I got in the zone and stayed there.”

Conda was apparently in another kind of zone. Maybe the Twilight Zone?

Conda’s disappointing loss also meant he would not get to play Jon Elsberry, his good friend and teammate, who defeated San Pasqual’s Tim Burke, 7-5, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

“I wanted to play him one last time in high school,” Conda said. “It’s kind of sad. This shows me that I have to work much harder. Maybe I needed this.”

Conda will play later this month in the Southern California Sectionals, where he is seeded third.

Fortunately, Elsberry won’t have to wait that long to play. But for a while, he looked like he was going to join his buddy on the sidelines. Burke, the No. 4 seed, grabbed a 5-2 lead in the first set by taking Elsberry’s best stuff off the baseline and sending it right back past him.

But Burke’s shots started going long and wide; Elsberry began to apply some pressure.

“I felt like I was just standing on the baseline and not moving into my shots,” Elsberry said. “Then, I started coming in and putting more into my shots.”

And before long it was over. Elsberry took the last five games of the second set and won the second set easily.

Although he’d rather be playing Conda, Elsberry said he will ready to play Barbarie today (4:15 at Rancho Arbolitos).

“If James would have won, I wouldn’t have cared too much,” said Elsberry, who will be attending Rice on a tennis scholarship next year. “But now that he’s out, I want to win badly.”

La Jolla’s Brett Johnson and Carl Adams will play their teammates, Simon Shen and Eric Wang, in the doubles finals at 3.