CdM All-American Tennis Tournament starts Friday
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The 18th annual Corona del Mar All-American Invitational Boys’ Tennis Tournament starts Friday, with host CdM and Sage Hill as the local teams competing.
Tournament director Tim Mang, the former longtime CdM boys’ coach, has assembled another strong field. Palisades High, led by Penn-bound Jake Sands and UCLA-bound Lucas Bellamy, is the top seed. Palisades finished second in the tournament last year.
Peninsula High, led by UCLA-bound Connor Hance, is seeded No. 2. Harvard-Westlake, currently the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 1, is the No. 3 seed, with Menlo School of Atherton as the No. 4 seed.
Torrey Pines won the tournament last year but was not invited back to defend its title, Mang said.
“They had an attitude problem,” he said.
Both local teams appear to have tough first-round matches. Sage Hill plays against top-seeded Palisades on Friday at 8:30 a.m. at University High. CdM opens against Bellarmine Prep of San Jose, also on Friday at 8:30 a.m., at CdM.
Should the Sea Kings win, they would likely meet No. 2-seeded Peninsula in a tournament quarterfinal at 1 p.m. at CdM. The Sea Kings already lost to the Panthers, 13-5, last week in the high school dual match format. They also have lost in the All-American Tournament quarterfinals for 10 years in a row.
“The All-American is going to be a tough tournament this year,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said in a text message. “I’m excited for the premier tournament in the country to be hosted at CdM. It’s a great format where you have to have strength at the top of your lineup, and there are no easy matches.”
Matches at the All-American Tournament consist of five singles sets and three doubles sets. Athletes are able to play in both singles and doubles.
There should be a number of good first-round matches, Mang said. University has a tough match against Greenhill School from Texas, and Arcadia should have a good match against Saratoga High.
The tournament continues Saturday, with semifinals scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at University. The championship match is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, at Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach.
Lincoln High from Portland, Ore. is the lone first-time entrant into the tournament, Mang said. Lincoln plays Harvard-Westlake in the first round.
Weather could affect the tournament’s final day. As of Thursday afternoon, there was a 30% chance of rain on Saturday. Mang said he considered having teams play three matches on Friday instead of just two, but the chance of rain on Saturday has decreased more recently.
“We have squeegees at all three sites,” he said.
OJAI TENNIS PARTICIPANTS ANNOUNCED
The CIF Southern Section on Wednesday announced the CIF singles and doubles division participants for this year’s Ojai Tennis Tournament, scheduled April 27-29.
High schools can have a total of one singles player and one doubles team entered into the prestigious tournament. In all, there are three local singles players and five local doubles teams entered.
CdM sophomore Kyle Pham, Newport Harbor freshman Max McKennon and Sage Hill senior Adam Langevin will all vie in singles. In doubles, CdM has the team of Diego Fernandez del Valle and Matt Paulsen competing, while the Fountain Valley duo of Jonathan Dang and Ryan Trinh are also entered.
Laguna Beach’s Ethan Gee and Tristan Krogius will also compete in doubles in Ojai, as will Newport Harbor’s David Lee and Mark Schaefer, and Sage Hill’s Ian Huang and Han Chin.
Alternates include Marina singles player Paul Ambrose, as well as the Vikings’ doubles team of Dylan Chennault and Nathan Nguyen.
Peninsula senior Connor Hance, bound for UCLA, will return to defend his CIF singles division title.
Twitter: @mjszabo
