100th Annual Southern California Junior Sectional Championships:

Ball and Van’t Hof set back to consolation

Steve Virgen

FOUNTAIN VALLEY - Familiarity worked against local boys tennis

standouts Carsten Ball and Kaes Van’t Hof in the 16s singles

quarterfinals of the 100th annual Southern California Junior Sectional

Championships at the Los Caballeros Tennis Center Friday.

Ball, the No. 7 seed, lost to No. 2-seeded Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel),

2-6, 3-6. Singer, who is the favorite to win the boys 16s, defeated Ball

to finish third in the Easter Bowl and has been displaying noteworthy

improvement throughout the year.

Singer quickly grabbed the advantage against Ball Friday, using a

strong serve and plenty of spin on his shots.

“My serve was on today,” said Singer, who will be a sophomore at the

John Newcombe Tennis Academy in Texas in the fall. “I pretty much got the

ball deep and moved it where I wanted to.”

Ball, who had defeated Singer six times before falling to him in the

Easter Bowl and now the junior sectionals, struggled to find rhythm and

Singer took advantage.

“I was just trying to get the ball back in play, but Lee is too

strong,” said Ball, who will be a Corona del Mar High sophomore in the

fall. “I’ve played Lee over a long time now, and we seem to have good

matches. He played well and he got ahead.”

Singer, who attended Dana Hills last year, nearly won the Easter Bowl

boys 16s title. In the semifinals, against No. 1 seed Dillon Howard,

Singer was up, 6-1, and 5-1 in the second set, before he succumbed to

dehydration and had to default.

Singer is the favorite in the boys 16s junior sectionals because the

top seed Jonathan Sanchez (Fullerton) did not reach the quarterfinals.

Ball will face the No. 4 seed, Gary Sacks (Calabasas Hills) in a

consolation quarterfinal today at 9:30 a.m. at the Neal Machander Tennis

Center in Santa Ana.

Meanwhile, Van’t Hof of Newport Beach dropped his quarterfinal match

to Sam Tadevosian (Glendale), 6-3, 4-6, 3-6. Last year, Van’t Hof won the

boys 14s junior sectionals title with a 6-1, 6-3 dominating victory over

Tadevosian. However, this year was an entirely different story.

After dropping the first set, Tadevosian avenged last year’s loss by

grabbing momentum from a second-set victory.

In the third set, Tadevosian built a 4-1 lead after breaking Van’t

Hof’s serve and also winning the first, third and fifth games when

serving. Van’t Hof, who will be a sophomore at Mater Dei in the fall,

responded by winning the next two games. But, Tadevosian ended the match

with his quick serve, sweeping Van’t Hof in the final game.

“(Tadevosian has) gotten a lot sharper and he’s getting bigger,” Van’t

Hof said. “He’s a lot bigger than last year. I got lazy on my points and

he took advantage. I was missing shots I should have put away.”

Van’t Hof will meet Austin Moller (Manhattan Beach) in a consolation

quarterfinal today at 9:30 at Neal Machander. If Van’t Hof and Ball win,

they will face each other in the consolation semifinals, at 12:30 p.m.

In other boys junior sectionals action:

In boys 18s, CdM’s Garrett Snyder lost to Reyniere Roxas (Carson),

6-7, 3-6, in consolation action and was eliminated.

In boys 14s, Newport Beach’s Jake Fleming, the No. 8 seed, was

eliminated by Mike Gurman (Los Angeles), who won, 6-2, 6-0, in the second

round of consolation.