Sailors’ Max into CIF Individuals semifinals

SEAL BEACH — All but four CIF Southern Section boys’ tennis singles players have retired their uniforms for the season.

This isn’t the case for Newport Harbor High freshman Max McKennon, who will don the Sailors’ navy blue polo shirt again on Saturday at Seal Beach Tennis Center.

The significance of this accomplishment is not lost on McKennon, who turned 15 years old a couple of weeks ago. But he stands bigger than that at 6-foot-3, and he plays bigger than that too.

McKennon advanced to the final four of the CIF Southern Section Individuals boys’ tennis tournament on Friday. After topping Noah Gampel of Oaks Christian, 6-3, 6-3, in the round of 16, the lefty beat Leyton Bohren of Claremont, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

McKennon, the last area tennis player remaining in the tournament, will play top-seeded senior Connor Hance of Peninsula in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Saturday. The other semifinal will match No. 2-seeded Stefan Dostanic of Woodbridge and Adam Sraberg of Harvard-Westlake, with the championship match to follow.

At this point, McKennon feels a bit like he’s playing with house money. But he will compete on Saturday, like he always does. He was undefeated in the Sailors’ dual matches this season, helping them advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 2 semifinals.

“I know it’s tough to get here, one of the last four in the whole Southern Section,” he said. “It feels great … I’ve never played [Hance], I’ve kind of looked up to him. He’s always been such a good player. I have nothing to lose [Saturday], so I’ll just come out swinging.”

McKennon went ahead two breaks of serve in the first set against Bohren, the Palomares League champion. He gave one of them back, but broke serve again to end the set.

McKennon earned an early break in the second, before Bohren broke back for 2-1. The set was on serve the rest of the way until the tiebreaker, where McKennon won the first five points and didn’t look back.

“I thought I played really well,” he said. “I served really well, and I got in his return games a lot. I fell a little short in a few of them, but the tiebreak felt really good.”

McKennon said he also felt good beating Gampel, who he had lost to three times in the 12s in junior tournaments, in the Individuals round of 16. He stands out in mixing things up and using creative angles, keeping his opponents off-balance.

“It’s huge for a left-hander,” McKennon said. “Maybe they’re thinking I’m going down the line, and I’ll just pull them back cross [court]. I’ve been working on that a lot with my coach, [former CdM standout] Carsten [Ball].”

Newport Harbor coach Kristen Case has her second player in three years to make the CIF Individuals singles semifinals, after Reese Stalder was a finalist in 2015. As for McKennon, he continues to impress Case.

“It’s a big accomplishment [to make the semifinals] as young as he is, and he’s playing great tennis,” she said. “He has nothing to lose. It’s a great opportunity, and he’s just got to go out and love doing what he loves to do, which is compete and play tennis.”

Other local players lost in the CIF Southern Section Individuals round of 16. Newport Harbor seniors David Lee and Mark Schaefer lost in doubles to Jack and Ian Freer of St. Francis, 6-3, 6-4. Sage Hill’s doubles team of Emin Torlic and Steven Ferry lost to top-seeded defending champions Bryce Pereira and Connor Lee of San Marino, 6-3, 6-4. The other local doubles team was CdM’s Diego Fernandez del Valle and Kyle Pham, who fell to Andy Reddy and Wally Thayne of Newbury Park, 6-1, 6-0.

In singles, Sage Hill senior Adam Langevin lost to Sraberg, 6-3, 7-5.

But all of these local players could take solace in knowing that this was the furthest they had ever gone in the Individuals tournament. Lee and Schaefer, the Sunset League champions, had never made it past the third round. On Friday, they stayed hours after their match ended to watch their Sailors teammate McKennon.

“It was a big year for us,” Schaefer said. “Ojai was really good, and we finally won the league tournament, then we made it the furthest we’ve ever done in CIF. It was kind of a solid way to end the year.”

Case said she appreciated the leadership of the seniors.

“Their influence within our program has been something that I’m so grateful for,” she said. “So to see them have this success is a very proud moment for me.”

Torlic and Ferry had a respectable showing against Pereira and Lee, the top seeds. The Lightning duo was even ahead a break of serve early in the second set before the San Marino pair rallied for the win.

“I’m pretty happy with what we did,” Torlic said. “I didn’t expect us to get this many games. We still played really well no matter who we played against, the defending champion or not, or No. 1 in the world or not. We still competed at our best.”

Langevin, who graduated from Sage Hill in an on-campus ceremony on Friday night, had his chances late in both sets against Sraberg. He was ahead 5-4 in the second set before Sraberg rallied.

Now it is just McKennon in action on Saturday. He has yet to drop a set in four matches to get to the semifinals.

“[CIF Individuals] is a lot different [from USTA tournaments],” McKennon said. “It’s pretty cool though, just to play all of the players. Almost all of them are older than you, about to go to college. It’s good match play.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo