Sage Hill advances

NEWPORT BEACH — While Sage Hill School tennis coach A.G. Longoria has been worrying over who will fill the Lightning’s No. 3 doubles spot, the boys on the team have barely had time to focus on anything except Advanced Placement exams.

Longoria has been trying to find a good fit for the No. 3 spot for most of the season. Thursday, when Sage Hill (14-9) met Santiago of Corona (8-8) in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs, it was evident that he was still looking.

Sage Hill lost two of its three matches in the No. 3 spot, but the Lightning went on to win, 14-4.

Longoria remained worried about how the team would fare at the spot as it moves through the playoffs.

The Lightning will play Gahr, the No. 1 representative from the San Gabriel Valley League, which defeated Templeton, 13-5, Friday. A coin flip will determine where Gahr and Sage Hill meet Saturday for a match scheduled at 3 p.m.

“We tried to used the first half of the season to see what all the combinations are,” Longoria said. “We’ve got all the combinations but that one and we’ve had one combination that will do good for awhile and then they don’t do well.”

The bright spot came in the final match of the day, when substitutes Sean Batten and Cyrus Khoyilar saved three match points to win in a tiebreaker, 7-6.

Batten and Khoyilar had struggled before with squandering early leads, Longoria said. Their Thursday success will mean a challenge match today.

Batten and Khoyilar will play against David Fayngor and Kevin Marshack for the No. 3 spot heading into Saturday’s match.

“They’re probably feeling a lot of pressure, not having played in playoffs like the rest of them have been, so somebody’s got to break through quickly,” Longoria said. “We’ll see what happens.”

The Lightning hadn’t played a match in a week, and Thursday gave them a chance to reboot.

Much of the team had missed practice this week because of AP exams and final projects, the last of which take place today. Even Sage Hill’s No. 1 singles player Kevin Wang relinquished a few early points in his first match.

“This week, for our school in particular, is literally hell,” Wang said. “A school-wide English project and AP’s are this week, so a lot of people have missed practice. I’m no exception. I’ve only been to practice one time this week, so the rustiness showed in the first set. Once I got my mechanics back, it was just easy.”

Wang turned his ankle, but still pulled through to defeat Nick Larson, 6-3, then beat John Vu, 6-0, and David Low, 6-0.

“It could have gotten a little bit hairy, but we taped his ankle up, and he was able to finish the match,” Longoria said. “He’s OK. We’re going to have the trainer look at it [today] and see what happens, but I think he’ll be all right by Saturday.”

More than anything, Wang just wants his teammates to stay away from the Internet for the rest of Sage Hill’s playoff run. Or at least the USTA website. They have a habit of looking up their opponents’ USTA rankings, and then psyching themselves out.

But Wang thinks that’s unnecessary.

“The way I approach it is, it’s only one set,” Wang said. “It’s different if you play someone better than you and you’re playing the best out of three sets because the talent will prevail. But in high school tennis, it’s only one set.

“Anything can happen, quite frankly.”

CIF Southern Section

Division IV playoffs

First round

Sage Hill 14, Santiago 4

Singles – Wang (SH) def. Larson, 6-3, def. Vu, 6-0, def. Low, 6-0. Astorino (SH) won, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0. Sethi (SH) won, 6-3, 6-4, lost, 6-2.

Doubles – Yun-Kurzweil (SH) def. Baxter-Talalay, 7-6, def. Franco-Vaughn, 6-2; lost to Irvine-Abdelsed, 6-4. Gerdau-Koeberle (SH) won, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Fayngor-Marshack (SH) lost, 6-2; (sub) Batten-Khoyilar lost, 7-6, won, 7-6.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.