Sea Kings coasting along

Bryce Alderton

A return to Division I before the 2002-03 school year meant the

Corona del Mar High boys tennis team would face the best of the best

once the CIF Southern Section playoffs came around.

What did the Sea Kings say to that? No problem.

CdM, off to a 15-0 start through Tuesday, has won 39 consecutive

matches dating to last season, when the squad went 24-0, including a

14-4 victory over Santa Barbara in the Division I final.

The Sea Kings, ranked No. 1 in Division I, appear just as powerful

this year. They already have downed Woodbridge, Mater Dei, Beverly

Hills, Peninsula and Pacific Coast League rival University, all top

10 teams in Division I as of Friday.

CdM also won the All-American national tournament, an event it

hosts, for the third consecutive year last month, playing against the

nation’s best teams.

CdM Coach Tim Mang stacks his nonleague schedule with powerhouses

because he knows those are the teams the Sea Kings must go through to

win a CIF championship.

It also helps to have three of the best singles players in

Southern California in juniors Carsten Ball, Wesley Miller and

Spencer Reitz.

Ball has blistered through his opponents (18-0 through Tuesday)

and reached the quarterfinals of the boys 18s singles at the

prestigious Easter Bowl national tournament earlier this month.

The lefty grew six inches from last season and now stands 6-foot-1

while Miller and Reitz have honed their games to attain even more

consistency.

“All three have really improved,” Mang said. “And they are playing

the best players.

“It’s hard to beat Garrett [Snyder], [Ball] and [Miller]. We’ve

been very strong the last two years in singles.”

Snyder went 55-0 in dual singles matches for CdM last season and

is a freshman at the University of Texas this year.

With the strength in singles, Mang has focused more of his energy

on getting the right doubles combinations.

“Last year I could throw [singles players] in doubles, but I can’t

do that this year unless we are losing points in singles,” Mang said.

Brennan Roberts, CdM’s only senior, and junior Alex Nguyen have

been Mang’s No. 1 doubles team while juniors Nick Gingold and Sean

Pham, along with freshman Ryan Caughren and sophomores Jonathan

Kroopf and Dan Tat, have all seen action in doubles this season.

Mang routinely keeps tabs on his players’ practice habits and

takes every opportunity to remind them what they are striving toward.

“There are three or four players I don’t have to worry about, but

with other players, I keep reminding them they have to work on

certain areas,” Mang said. “You can’t just do two hours of practice.

You have to [practice] on vacations, while on [spring break].

Sometimes I have to be the bad guy and ask, ‘How come you’re not

doing that?’ ”

He wants all players to envision each match as if it was for the

CIF championship.

“If I can get four points out of my doubles, my singles should get

at least six,” Mang said.

The tactic worked in the championship match last season.

Bryan Warsaw and Issei Saida, both seniors at the time, won two of

three sets against Santa Barbara.

“They said, ‘Coach, we are going to win two for you,’ and they

did,” Mang said. “That is a challenge I give to other doubles teams.”

CdM has six more matches before league finals begin May 10. CIF

begins May 18.

*

If CdM reaches the CIF quarterfinals, scheduled May 25, it might

have to compete without Miller and Ball.

The two could be competing in a United States Tennis Association

national open that day to gain points, which are a factor college

coaches look at even more closely.

Mang has e-mailed tournament organizer Chuck Kingman and contacted

the CIF and Southern California Tennis Association to devise a

solution. Talks remain ongoing.

“I suggested to play the match another day and we would travel,”

Mang said. “A great deal has changed with national points this year.

You have to play each tournament to pile on the points, which hasn’t

been the case in years before. The colleges look at national

rankings. It penalizes players trying to earn national points the

same day as the [CIF] quarterfinals.”

Instead of playing this week’s Ojai Valley tournament, Ball and

Miller will compete in an event in Fresno to earn points. Players

will not earn points at Ojai this year.