Dons topple CdM

COSTA MESA — It wasn’t hard to single out a reason why the Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis team lost Friday’s quarterfinal match at the National High School Tennis All-American Tournament to Santa Barbara.

The problem turned out to be just that: singles.

The second-seeded Dons swept the five singles matches at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center, clinching their 5-3 victory before the doubles portion of the match even began.

Earlier Friday, Corona del Mar topped Salpointe Catholic of Tucson, Ariz., 5-3, in the opening round. The Sea Kings play in a fifth-place semifinal match against Horace Mann School today at 8 a.m. at CdM.

CdM senior Fabian Matthews lost in singles for the first time in four years at the All-American Tournament, falling to Santa Barbara’s Daniel Nguyen, 8-4, in the eight-game pro set format. Nguyen, a junior who won the boys’ 16s title at the Ojai Tournament last spring, also won the boys’ 18s title at the prestigious South Bay tournament earlier this month.

Matthews, headed to UC Irvine, was in nearly every game, but his serve was broken twice and he couldn’t quite recover.

“[Nguyen] is a very good player,” CdM Coach Tim Mang said. “I talked to Fabian earlier, and he was a little bit nervous about playing him.

“Fabian just has to win for us to win,” Mang added. “It hasn’t changed, has it Parker?”

He was talking to Parker Rhodes, who formerly played doubles for CdM but said he now attends a boarding school in Utah. Rhodes was there Friday afternoon with his free-flowing red hair, visiting his former teammates and hitting with former doubles partner Chris Damion.

CdM might have been able to use him, as Santa Barbara also easily took three other singles wins to build up a 4-0 lead. In the last singles match to end, the Dons’ Michael Grant clinched the win with a comeback, 8-6 victory over CdM’s Ryan Peyton.

Despite the loss, Mang said he wasn’t too discouraged. Mang, also the tournament director, got a chance to play some interesting doubles teams against Santa Barbara.

“There are all these positives that come out of these tournaments, because we’re playing some of the best teams,” Mang said. “Some of these kids are incredible. You don’t realize how good these teams are.”

CdM still managed to sweep Santa Barbara in doubles. The Dons also put subs in, but the Sea Kings pairings of Gabino Felgueroso and Shane Korber, Peyton and Brent Pham, and Joel Ishii and Hayden Tremper were all victorious.

Ishii and Tremper are both freshmen, but they were the first doubles team done, topping Santa Barbara’s R.J. Rotman and Matt Baum, 8-2.

“We volleyed well,” Tremper said. “We just put balls away and finished the point. We let them hit more unforced errors than us. We played solid.”

Mang was also impressed in Corona del Mar’s doubles prowess.

“That was really good,” Mang said. “I’ll be redoing my lineups now. The guys who want to get out there and fight until the end, those will be the guys who will be playing for me in doubles.

“The other guys will be taking their places in singles,” Mang added with a laugh, “when we play the good teams.”

In CdM’s first-round match, Matthews pulled off a big comeback against another highly ranked player, Salpointe Catholic senior Cameron Ahari. Matthews was down, 3-0, to Ahari but came back to force a tiebreaker. There, Ahari again went ahead, 3-1, but Matthews rallied for the win.

Ahari tried serve-and-volleying as the match progressed, but Matthews responded with a few backhand winners up the line.

“I thought we were supposed to be here by 8 [a.m.], but we were supposed to here by 7,” Matthews said. “I woke up at 7:30, came over here really quick and didn’t get a warmup. After I was down 3-0, I don’t know, I just got a groove and everything started working.”

He said he had never played Ahari, but knew him because they roomed together on a recruiting visit to USC.

Mang said the match against Ahari was definitely one to remember.

“That was one of the biggest sets in the history of this tournament, as far as excitement and quality of tennis,” Mang said.

Peyton and Felgueroso also won first-round singles sets, putting CdM up, 3-2. The doubles teams of Damion and Tremper, and Peyton and Korber, then won to clinch the victory.

Top-seeded University High faces Mater Dei today at 11 a.m. in a tournament semifinal at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club. Peninsula plays Santa Barbara in the other semifinal.

The title match is today at 4 p.m., also at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club.

All-American Tournament

Quarterfinal

Santa Barbara 5, Corona del Mar 3

Singles – Matthews (CdM) lost to Nguyen, 4-8; Damion (CdM) lost to Grokenberger, 3-8; Korber (CdM) lost to A. Grant, 1-8; Peyton (CdM) lost to M. Grant, 6-8; Felgueroso (CdM) lost to Melton, 2-8.

Doubles – Felgueroso-Korber (CdM) def. Teufel-Vaughan, 8-2; Peyton-Pham (CdM) def. Demopoulos-Diaz, 8-6; Ishii-Tremper (CdM) def. Rotman-Baum, 8-2.

First round

Corona del Mar 5,

Salpointe Catholic 3

Singles – Matthews (CdM) def. Ahari, 8-7 (8-6); Damion (CdM) lost to Brown, 5-8; Pham (CdM) lost to Robinson-Bours, 3-8; Peyton (CdM) def. McDaniels, 8-2; Felgueroso (CdM) def. Qabazard, 8-2.

Doubles – Matthews-Felgueroso (CdM) lost to Ahari-Brown, 5-8; Damion-Tremper (CdM) def. Comstock-McDaniels, 8-3; Peyton-Korber (CdM) def. Robinson-Bours-Qabazard, 8-1.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.