Sage a game short

After three hours of high quality tennis, it was an act of sportsmanship off the court that perhaps impressed Crean Lutheran boys’ tennis Coach T.J. Reynolds the most on Thursday evening.

Crean Lutheran and Sage Hill were tied in sets, 9-9, in the important Academy League match. But there was a disparity in the games count.

“We thought it was 70-all, so we were getting ready to go out and play tiebreakers again to break the tie,” Reynolds said. “[Sage Hill Coach Mark Watkins] said, ‘You know, we’ve got 70-71, your favor.’ He didn’t have to do that. We went through and checked the scores, and found out that one of our scores wasn’t recorded right.

“You just can’t get better sportsmanship. That’s just the ideal for coaching for me. Not every coach is going to do that, so hat’s off to Mark Watkins ... He was such a good sport, such a good guy.”

Watkins’ tally was indeed correct, and it didn’t benefit the Lightning. The Saints won the match on games, 71-70, to stay undefeated in league play at 5-0.

The two teams are the class of the Academy League. Crean Lutheran, ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 2, appears headed to its second outright league title in three years, after sharing it with Sage Hill last year. But the Lightning (7-3, 3-2 in league) certainly made Crean earn it on Thursday.

They pushed Crean Lutheran much more than in the teams’ first meeting, a 12-6 Crean victory on March 22. This time, Sage Hill had reinforcements.

Freshman Steven Ferry, who didn’t play in the teams’ first meeting due to illness, swept at No. 3 singles for the Lightning. That included an impressive 6-3 win over Crean Lutheran senior Allen Thornes, the defending league singles champion, in the final set to complete with both teams watching.

“This, to me, is what competitive tennis is all about,” Watkins said. “It’s thrilling when it comes down to the last game of the last set, with the last guys on court. Everybody’s into it, and the guys on the court feel the whole weight of their team behind them. It’s just thrilling. To be perfectly honest, I’m just as happy losing that match today as I would have been if we won. I feel no different; I’m just really pleased.”

The match was tied, 3-3, after the first round and 6-6 after two rounds. The teams were tied in games, 49-49, at that point as well.

Sage Hill’s No. 2 doubles team of junior Zach Washer and freshman Josh Watkins, neither of whom played in the teams’ first league meeting either, topped Crean’s No. 3 team of Mateus Joo and Byron Goulard, 6-1, in the final round. And Sage No. 2 singles player Emin Torlic, a freshman, beat Crean No. 3 Jason Huang, 6-0.

Crean countered with two wins to tie the match at 8-8. The No. 1 doubles team of Luke Barnard and Ryan O’Keefe beat Sage’s Will Sanderson and Grant Janavs, 6-2. And Crean’s No. 2 singles player Gavin Spencer blanked Sage senior Kenan Torlic, 6-0.

At that point, with two sets left on court, Sage Hill had a 63-62 lead in games. But Crean Lutheran’s doubles team of brothers Bret and Even Kittelsen, who easily swept, topped Sage’s Adam Langevin and Ian Huang, 6-1.

Reynolds said it was the 69th consecutive win for the Kittelsen brothers. They continued to deliver as Crean missed singles players Jay Min and Karthik Nair, one with elbow tendinitis and one with a nagging wrist injury.

“These guys sucked it up and didn’t let that bother them,” Reynolds said. “I’m really proud of them.”

Crean Lutheran led, 9-8, and by four games. Ferry got three of them back as he finished off the match with his impressive win over Thornes, 6-3, rallying after losing a double-break lead. But Sage finished just a game short.

“It felt amazing,” Ferry said. “[Thornes] went to the bathroom, so I knew he was going to come back pretty strong. When you go to the bathroom, you reset mentally. At first, I was a little caught off guard, because he was way more intense when he came back.

“[Sage Hill assistant coach Geoff Lance] told me that I needed to hit with heavy spin and be very consistent, because the guy missed after like five balls. That’s pretty much the strategy I used. I mean, I was definitely hitting a lot harder than I normally do, but a lot of spin was put on the ball.”

Langevin and Huang were the only doubles team to win twice for Sage Hill. Kenan and Emin Torlic both won a set in singles.

Despite the narrow loss, Mark Watkins said the Lightning will use the experience as a positive going forward. Sage Hill plays host to Foothill in a nonleague match Friday.

“I look at how our team is coming together and growing,” Watkins said. “With a match like this, I can see a lot of very promising things for the postseason for our team. A lot of really good things happened today. Even though we didn’t win the head-to-head against Crean, I think there was a lot of confidence that was built with certain players. I feel like today prepared both teams, Crean and us, for what is going to happen later in the season. These are the kind of matches that really can catapult you for a postseason experience.”