Sage silenced in singles

NEWPORT BEACH ? Sage Hill School boys’ tennis Coach A.G. Longoria is glad to see the arrival of spring break. Sure, the week off ? which starts Monday ? means the absence of doubles player Grant Gerdau, who left for China on Wednesday, but there are positives.

The Lightning can use the week to ponder their first Academy League loss of the season, 10-8 to St. Margaret’s at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club on Thursday. And reflecting on the loss, in which Sage Hill (3-6, 2-1 in league) won one singles set, will include a visual element.

For the first time with the boys’ team, Longoria installed a video camera above the No. 1 tennis court to record his doubles teams in action against St. Margaret’s top pair. In the next match, the singles players will be taped.

Longoria said he believes videotaping matches was key to the girls’ team run to a CIF Southern Section Division V championship in the fall.

“The kids can see what they are doing wrong,” said Longoria, who will gives his players discs with the taped matches. “It’s amazing to see themselves actually play the match. They’ll have spring break to reflect on it.”

With Gerdau out, No. 1 singles player Robert Wee volunteered to take his place. The tandem of Wee, who had won five consecutive singles sets, and Conrad Whitaker took the first two doubles sets, but lost the third after jumping to a 4-3 lead.

“We wanted to try to sweep all of the doubles,” Longoria said. “It looked like we’d win.”

Michael Garrison and Troy Astorino, the No. 1 doubles team, were the only ones to sweep their sets.

“We didn’t play well enough,” said Garrison, a co-captain with Wee. “We have to show up to games ready to go out and act like we want to win.”

Astorino agreed that Sage Hill’s next step will be mental.

“We could have done a lot better,” Astorino said. “We have to attack the net. Be aggressive and not let them take control. To win, you have to attack. We have a lot more potential. We have to focus on every point, every hit. We talked about how we have to focus. We should beat them.”