Boys’ Tennis: Crean too strong for Sage
IRVINE — The first boys’ tennis set completed Tuesday afternoon was a victory for Sage Hill School.
The Lightning’s only senior starter, Kenan Torlic, took out Crean Lutheran’s Karthik Nair, 6-0, at No. 3 singles in the key Academy League match.
“I call that senior leadership right there,” Sage Hill Coach Mark Watkins said as Torlic walked off the court.
At the time, though, Watkins didn’t know it’d be nearly two hours before Sage Hill would win its second set of the afternoon.
Host Crean Lutheran was too strong in the match between the teams that split the league title last season. The Saints eased to a 12-6 victory over the Lightning in a match that wasn’t as close as that score might indicate.
The doubles teams of senior twins Bret and Even Kittelsen, as well as Ryan O’Keefe and Luke Barnard, both swept for Crean Lutheran (2-5, 2-0 in league). The Saints opened up a 5-1 lead after the first round, unlike the two close matches when the teams met last year. Sage Hill won at Crean Lutheran a year ago, 10-8, before suffering a 9-9 (76-75 on games) loss at The Tennis Club that forced Sage to share the league title.
The key set in the first round Tuesday was at No. 2 singles, where Crean junior Jay Min edged Sage freshman Emin Torlic, 7-6 (7-5), in a set that took about 70 minutes to complete.
The younger Torlic beat Nair, 6-3, in the final set of the second round. But by then, Crean Lutheran had a 10-1 lead and had clinched what Coach T.J. Reynolds called a “huge” victory.
“For our doubles teams to do that well, that was the big difference in the match,” Reynolds said.
The Kittelsen twins went 52-0 last season on their way to the Academy League doubles title. They got a bit of a late start to this season, Reynolds said, as they helped the Saints boys’ basketball team reach the CIF Southern Section Division 4A semifinals before losing to eventual champion Viewpoint.
On the boys’ tennis team, they contribute to a deep Crean lineup that also includes senior Allen Thornes, last year’s singles league champion, who easily won twice in singles Tuesday before he was subbed out.
Barnard was an Academy League singles finalist last season, but is now playing doubles.
“That shows you the depth of their team,” Watkins said.
No. 1 singles player Adam Langevin and both Torlic brothers won in singles in the third round for Sage Hill (4-2, 1-1), all against substitutes. The lone doubles win also came in the third round, when Sage sophomores Ian Huang and Will Sanderson beat Crean’s Mateus Joo and Byron Goulard, 6-2.
Huang and Sanderson had a good set with the Kittelsen twins as well, battling back from a 4-1 deficit before succumbing, 6-4.
“I predict they’ll be playing a lot more together,” Watkins said of his sophomore duo. “They showed very good chemistry as a doubles team.”
Watkins said his team wasn’t quite at full strength Tuesday, as freshmen starters Steven Ferry and Josh Watkins were both out sick. Junior Zach Washer, a transfer from Laguna Beach and a talented doubles player, becomes eligible to play for the Lightning in early April after spring break.
If they’re at full strength, Watkins hopes that the Lightning can put up a better showing when they play Crean Lutheran at home on April 14.
“We look forward to a very competitive match,” he said. “It’ll be a very high level of tennis at every court, from No. 1 singles down to No. 3 doubles. I think that’ll be exciting.”
