Palos Verdes Peninsula Hands No. 1 Sea Kings Their First Loss

Corona del Mar played Palos Verdes Peninsula in boys’ tennis Monday at the Palisades Club. So it shouldn’t have been a shock that there was plenty of high-quality, emotional tennis, a little controversy, a close match decided by games and. . . . a Peninsula victory.

The 88-83 loss in games was Corona del Mar’s first of the season and it gave Palos Verdes Peninsula a claim to be the top-seeded team when the Southern Section Division I playoffs begin in two weeks. But it also gave Corona del Mar, top-ranked in Orange County, plenty of motivation, as if it needed more, the next time the teams meet.

Corona del Mar (16-1) trailed from the start, 4-2 after one round and 7-5 after two rounds. The Sea Kings closed to 9-8 in the third round but trailed by six games while Corona del Mar senior Christian Jensen and Peninsula freshman Rylan Rizza battled it out. Although the Jensen-Rizza match featured several disputed line calls and a few emotional outbursts from Rizza, it appeared to be a meaningless set once Rizza earned enough games.

But another disputed line call in the tiebreaker brought Rizza over the net so he could show Jensen and two line judges--a player from each team--where his ball had landed.

Corona del Mar Coach Tim Mang thought the USTA rules stated that a player coming over the net is disqualified. A DQ could have meant a 6-0 Jensen victory, an 88-88 tie in games and a super tiebreaker to decide the match.

Some 30 minutes later, after a lot of arguing, Palisades Club owner Ken Stuart returned with a ruling from a USTA referee that said Rizza had only committed a code violation. Corona del Mar was awarded the tiebreaker, 9-7, and Peninsula the match.

“I don’t like it to end like this,” Peninsula Coach Tom Cox said. “We play tough matches. That’s good. But you like them to end in less controversy. Next time, we’ll have refs.”

Mang knew Peninsula (15-2) was missing two of its top three players. Eric Basica was sick and Tiege Sullivan has a broken elbow. Mang didn’t find out until Monday morning that his top doubles player--Sameer Chopra--was suspended for the match by the administration because of academic problems.