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Rick Devereux

There was guaranteed to be at least one local doubles champion Friday

at the 16th annual War by the Shore junior tennis tournament at the

Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club as the boys 16s doubles final featured

players from Corona del Mar on each side of the net.

Parker Rhodes, a freshman-to-be at Corona del Mar High, and his

partner Jason Lin of Irvine won, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, over Mater Dei

freshman-to-be and CdM resident Omeed Ghassemi and his partner, Yorba

Linda’s Ryan Agbayani.

“I didn’t play well in the first set,” Rhodes said. “I just ate

and felt stuffed.”

Despite his late lunch leading to lethargy, Rhodes was dominate at

the net, smashing home points in the first set, including the

set-winner.

Ghassemi matched Rhodes’ play at the net in the second set. He

returned a Rhodes’ smash with masterful shot cross court out the

reach of a lunging Lin and smashed home a game winner to go up, 3-1.

“In the second set, we were able to counter their aggression,”

Ghassemi said. “But we couldn’t hold our serve in the third set.”

Rhodes and Lin turned up their intensity in the third set, racing

out to a 3-0 lead thanks, in part, to smashes by Rhodes.

“We played more aggressive in the third set,” Lin said. “We played

all right in the first set, but I think we were tight in the second

set.”

In the girls 14s doubles final, Kristina and Joanna Smith from

Laguna Niguel defeated Melissa Matsuoka of Newport Beach and teammate

Hayley Miller of Laguna Beach, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2.

“I thought we played pretty well, but it was close,” Matsuoka

said. “We wanted to be aggressive and not rally on the back court.”

Matsuoka and Miller, who won the girls 12s doubles last year, used

vigorous volleys to come back from a 4-2 deficit in the second set.

“I thought we came to the net more [in the second set],” Miller

said. “In the third set, we missed a lot of shots and didn’t come to

the net as much. Plus, [the Smiths] played better.”

Tournament Director Bob Ogle said he was pleased with participants

abilities and attitudes this year.

“It was another stellar year. It seems that the level of play is

always rising,” he said. “And the general overall sportsmanship of

the kids was really good. It was very encouraging.”