Mesa boys’ tennis celebrates its big season

Nick Warner was almost sheepish about his success in the final match of the Costa Mesa High boys’ tennis season.

The senior swept in singles in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs against top-seeded Magnolia. It was a great sweep, one which finished off a season that had the Mustangs’ No. 1 singles player end with a 21-2 record.

Consistency was the name of the game for Warner, who played two sports in the spring. He was also an outside hitter and team captain on the boys’ volleyball team. This was his second year playing for Costa Mesa tennis, and also second year playing tennis competitively.

The interest in tennis did come naturally for Warner, who said his mom, Clare, plays the sport as a hobby. He also enjoys playing Ping-Pong and he lives in the Wimbledon Village area of Costa Mesa, where there are tennis courts for use. But he still wouldn’t describe himself as great at the sport.

“If you watch me, you know I don’t really play tennis,” Warner said. “You know I’m not that good. You’ll just see me sprinting like a madman all over the court, tapping the ball in. All I do is keep the ball in. Rarely do I attack the ball. The guys I’m playing … it’s completely their mistakes that made them lose, and that makes them so frustrated. I felt so bad, but I was just trying to have some fun and keep the ball in.”

But Warner’s success spoke for itself, and you could say the same about the rest of the Mustangs.

The team celebrated its season at the year-end banquet Tuesday night at the Dave & Busters at the Irvine Spectrum. First-year coaches Ryan and Meg Broccolo said at the beginning of the season, they just wanted to be able to field varsity and JV teams. Meg’s mom, Kate Bjorkman, coached the JV team.

The varsity team went 5-3 in league to finish second place and advance to CIF for the first time since 2011. That included two wins over crosstown rival Estancia.

Keep in mind, there was no boys’ team two years ago. Last year, the Mustangs went winless in league and had to deal with the death of coach Brian Ricker in the middle of the season.

“You guys blew away our expectations,” Ryan Broccolo told the team. “We did so much from last year to this year, it’s going to be big goals next year, but we can do it. We’ve got a young team.”

Yes, the Mustangs should be bringing a lot back. They had eight freshmen on this year’s squad, including their two team captains, Hritik Ronvelia and Nathan Trieu. Also on the team were two sophomores and two seniors, including Warner.

Costa Mesa athletic director Sharon Uhl was also at the banquet and handed out scholar-athlete awards to several members of the team who had a 3.0 or higher grade-point average. Uhl has also been instrumental in helping to build up the program.

What the Broccolos have done is make these kids excited about the sport, said booster club president Brian Valles, whose daughter Allison will be a senior on the girls’ team in the fall.

“This family is really the powerhouse behind the team,” Valles said. “They’ve lifted the team from the terrible place they were in, with the tragic and sudden loss of coach Ricker. Sharon really helped out as well, in terms of organizing the whole thing. It’s nice to see that the boys’ team is really coming around. It’s building … there’s a lot of hope in the parents, which is nice to see.”

After the awards ceremony, the kids left to play games in the arcade. They did it as they did everything this year, as a team.

Warner played water polo his first two years at Costa Mesa, and he still likes to surf, but he’s happy with how his time with the tennis team worked out. He said he will be going to Orange Coast College next year.

He won’t be playing tennis for the Pirates, but it is something he wants to keep up. And he said he’ll also be interested in following this group, and seeing their continued improvement.

“I’ll definitely play here and there,” he said with a smile. “If anyone wants to challenge me, I’m up for it.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo