Lightning denied again in CIF quarterfinals

ROWLAND HEIGHTS — Every year when the CIF Southern Section boys’ tennis brackets are released, there is new hope for the Sage Hill School team.

Maybe this will be the year that the Lightning can advance past the CIF quarterfinals.

The Lightning certainly hoped so at the start of this season, setting three goals for themselves. They wanted to win the Academy League title and be ranked No. 1 in Division IV, and they accomplished both of those during the season, feats never reached in the program’s history.

The final goal was to advance past the Division IV quarterfinals, the round where Sage Hill has been eliminated every year since 2004. But that groundbreaking accomplishment will need to wait at least another year.

No. 2-seeded Rowland swept in singles and topped Sage Hill, 12-6, in the quarterfinals Tuesday at Rowland High.

All Sage senior singles player Karam Sethi could do was shake his head, after his fourth straight exit in the quarterfinals. He will continue his career at Connecticut College, he said, but the most recent CIF exit was particularly stinging.

“I was super-proud of the team,” Sethi said. “This is definitely the best team that I’ve seen in my four years. But man, I didn’t think it would get to me this much, but [the loss] is heart-breaking. It sucks. [Sage Hill] is going to be so good next year though.”

Sethi and Grant Gerdau, who Coach A.G. Longoria said will play tennis at Southern Methodist University, are the only seniors for Sage Hill (15-10). On Tuesday, Gerdau and sophomore Alex Koeberle swept in doubles for the Lightning, a rare bright spot.

But Rowland (18-2), which shared the San Antonio League title with Walnut, used a deep singles lineup to its advantage. No. 1 singles player Levin Guillermo, a junior, is ranked No. 35 in Southern California in boys’ 18 singles.

Guillermo, Andy Vuong and Marcelo Bautista won every singles set by a score of 6-3 or better.

In doubles, Sage did win six of nine sets. At No. 1 doubles, junior Andrew Yun won twice, once with normal partner Andrew Kurzweil and once with substitute Cyrus Khoyilar.

“I’m not even sure we played our best game,” said Koeberle of sweeping with partner Gerdau by scores of 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2. “A couple of them could have been definite [6-0s]. We took care of our business today, but this is a team sport. Everyone tried their hardest, but that doesn’t mean everyone played well. [Rowland] just beat us. They were the better team today.”

Part of the problem, Longoria said, was that the Lightning were relatively in the dark about Rowland. Other than the league matches against Walnut, the Raiders hadn’t really played the other top teams in Division IV, so their ranking in the weekly polls never reached the top five.

Come playoff time, however, Rowland was awarded the No. 2 seed.

“I was a little bit surprised that we were [seeded] No. 2,” Rowland Coach Edward Wong said. “They probably looked at the players we had, and we’re in the league with Walnut, and Walnut historically has been very, very good ... I’m proud of the team. The tennis team has never gone to the semifinals. We’ve been to the quarterfinals, but we couldn’t get over the hump.”

Sage Hill knows the feeling, but Longoria said his team will have to keep in mind that it did accomplish two of its three goals.

“Two out of three ain’t bad, as Meat Loaf would say,” Longoria said.

CIF Southern Section

Division IV playoffs

Quarterfinal

Rowland 12, Sage Hill 6

Singles – Wang (SH) lost to Guillermo, 0-6, lost to A. Vuong, 0-6, lost to Bautista, 0-6; Astorino (SH) lost, 0-6, 2-6, 2-6; Sethi (SH) lost, 0-6, 3-6, 2-6.

Doubles – Yun-Kurzweil (SH) def. Tong-Yu, 6-4, lost to Chik-M. Vuong, 0-6, (sub) Yun-Khoyilar (SH) def. Tung-Wong, 7-5; (sub) Fayngor-Marshack (SH) won, 6-0, Batten-Berchtold (SH) lost, 1-6, 1-6; Gerdau-Koeberle (SH) won, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

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