Boys tennis: CdM falls in tournament finals

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - The Peninsula High boys tennis team showed exactly

why it is the No. 1 team in all the land following Saturday night’s 7-2

win over host Corona del Mar in the championship match of the CdM

National High School Boys Tennis All-American Team Invitational Saturday

night at the Palisades Tennis Club.

“We pulled out a couple of close sets and we fell short on a couple of

close sets,” CdM Coach Tim Mang said. “This was a great tournament,

nonetheless. Hopefully, this will get our team not only ready for Ojai,

but for CIF as well.”

The top-seeded Panthers won two of three doubles contests and

controlled in singles, winning five of six sets.

“They are just so darn deep,” Mang said. “They have no weaknesses.

They showed why they are the defending national champions.”

The Sea Kings managed to put a smile or two on Mang’s face in a couple

of different matches, especially in doubles play.

The No. 1 doubles squad of Brian Morton and Garrett Snyder took care

of Peninsula’s 1-2 punch of Rylan Rizza and Jeff Kazarian, 8-3.

“Our doubles team went right through the No. 2 doubles team in the

nation (according to the USTA),” Mang said. “That was great to see. They

really took it to them.”

The key to Morton and Snyder’s success came early. The duo broke

Peninsula’s serve on their first two attempts and jumped out to a 5-0

advantage.

Peninsula tried to find the right answer, but Morton’s power, Snyder’s

court coverage and CdM’s five-game lead were too much to overcome.

Peninsula’s No. 3 doubles team pulled out an 8-4 win over CdM, making

the No. 2 doubles match even more important.

CdM’s Peter Kulmaticki and Cameron Ball put up a strong fight against

the Panthers’ duo of Andrew Cohen and Teige Sullivan.

The Sea Kings managed to brake Peninsula’s serve twice, but both

times, the Panthers broke right back to even the set.

With the set tied, 6-6, Peninsula managed to break for a 6-7

advantage, but Ball and Kulmaticki refused to quit.

The CdM duo fought off one match point and broke back to force a 7-7

tiebreaker.

Both teams traded leads in the tiebreaker before Peninsula broke free

from a 4-4 deadlock to win the last three points, giving the Panthers a

2-1 advantage in sets.

“I thought coming into this tournament, it was either going to be CdM

or Menlo against us,” Peninsula Coach Tom Cox said. “We’ll get to play

these guys again pretty soon so we know that will be a big one. I like

this tournament because it brings my team together.”

That Panthers’ team unity spilled over into singles play as Peninsula

won all but one match.

The only CdM winner came from Ball in No. 2 singles. The junior used

his lightning-bolt serve and used a combination of baseline and net play

to defeat Jeff Kazarian.

“He was undefeated last year and he was undefeated this year,” Mang

said of Ball. “He really gets up for this tournament, that’s for sure.”

Similar to the success of Morton and Snyder, Ball used some early

energy to jump ahead of Kazarian, ranked No. 82 in the 18s, buy the USTA.

Ball jumped out to a 5-2 advantage and cruised to an 8-3 win.

Snyder, playing No. 3 singles against Sullivan, pushed the Panthers’

senior to the limit. The sophomore led Sullivan, 7-6, but fell behind on

his serve, 0-40.

Snyder, ranked No. 51 in the 16s division, fought off three break

points to force deuce. He fought off another break point before finally

losing his serve, forcing a tiebreaker.

Sullivan, one half of last year’s CIF Southern Section Division I

champion doubles team, used some top-quality baseline shots to pull out

the tiebreaker, 7-4.

Ball, Snyder and Morton were each named to the All-Tournament team, as

was Rizza, Kazarian and Sullivan for the Panthers.