Single-Minded Approach Nets a Title for University

University High’s powerful singles lineup was even better than advertised Wednesday in the Southern Section Division II boys’ tennis final. Aaron Yovan, Henry Mak and Jack Li didn’t lose a set and carried the top-seeded Trojans to an 11-7 victory over Brentwood at the Claremont Club.

The title was University’s first in 11 years and it put an exclamation point on the Trojans’ 20-0 season.

“There was an awful lot of pressure on those guys,” University Coach Jeff Hammond said. “They took the right mental approach to each match and they took care of business the way champions do.

“That was the expectation, to sweep, but you don’t count on it.”

Yovan hadn’t. “Sweeping them . . . wow, I didn’t think we’d do that,” he said.

With nine singles points, University needed only one point in doubles to win the match. It got two, both from its No. 1 team of Anson Hsu and Jeff Lawrence. The first point Hsu and Lawrence won was more significant. They upset Brentwood’s top team, Chris Dennis and Ari Rosenthal, 7-6 (3). Dennis and Rosenthal had lost only twice in two years and had not been beaten all season.

“Both of us are little erratic at times,” Lawrence said, “but when we get rolling, we can play with anybody. The whole time we were just thinking about staying loose. We’ve lost a lot of matches lately because we’ve been too tight.”

Lawrence and Hsu’s victory gave University a 4-2 first-round lead. After a singles sweep by University and a doubles sweep by Brentwood, University led, 7-5, entering the final round.

Yovan and Mak won easily and Jack Li held off Brentwood’s No. 1 player, Sean McKean, 6-3, to clinch the victory. McKean played University’s fearsome trio tough, but he lost to Yovan, 6-2, and to Mak, 6-4. By the time he faced Li, McKean was dragging.

“I think I could have beaten all three of those guys, but I didn’t have my ‘A’ game today,” McKean said. “I gave it all I had, but they’re tough.”

On Wednesday, University did what it failed to do last year, hold onto a big lead in the finals. Last year, the Trojans blew a 6-2 lead and lost to North Hollywood-Harvard Westlake, 10-8.

“Last year, we were a little overconfident,” Yovan said. “This year, we wanted to play every point hard.”

Hammond, who replaced the retired Josh Davis before the season, said he didn’t even mention last year’s heartbreaking loss in the finals.

“I just told them we needed every point,” Hammond said.

Hammond downplayed talk of a dynasty. But Yovan, Mak, Lawrence and Hsu are only sophomores and Li is a freshman.

“As long as the team stays intact,” Hammond said, “we should be pretty good next year.”