ALL-AREA BOYS’ TENNIS TEAM / PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Nick Varvais

SCHOOL: Royal

YEAR: Junior

SEASON AT A GLANCE: Tennis, by its very nature, defies perfection. It is among few games where an individual can triumph after numerous mistakes, create more “unforced errors� than winning shots. He or she can lose a set but win the match. But Nick Varvais defied imperfection. During the 1995 season, he did not lose a set, finishing 48-0. And in 29 of those sets, he didn’t lose a game. Varvais, who won’t turn 16 until Oct. 2, will enter his senior year this fall with a streak of 115 consecutive set victories in the Marmonte League, where he has been chosen most valuable player for the past three seasons. He is seeded seventh in Southern California in 18-and-under singles. Varvais said he used to be more error prone until he improved his ground strokes. “I was not an aggressive baseliner last year,� he said. “I kept the balls going a lot more. I had better stamina than most people, so I would outlast a lot of them. But I also hit a lot of balls out that way. Now I’m hitting better forehands and putting away more balls.�

ALL-AREA TEAM:

Ben Bayani (Royal), a junior who was overshadowed only by his teammate, Varvais. He compiled a 57-5 record, 38-4 in Marmonte League play and lost to Varvais, 6-3, 6-1, in the league singles final. Roman Braslovsky (Agoura), a senior headed for Columbia University, was the third-best singles player in the talent-rich Marmonte League. He had a 54-6 record and an equally impressive 3.9 grade-point average. David Brown (Harvard-Westlake), a junior who led the Wolverines to the Southern Section Division III championship match, was 25-5 in singles sets, 3-0 in doubles. In the playoff final, Brown upset Eni Ghidirmic of Palm Desert, 6-3, one week after Ghidirmic won the section singles championship. Anthony Gabriele (Birmingham), a sophomore who led the Braves to the City Section 3-A Division final for the first time in eight seasons, was 9-4 in match play and 16-0 in round-robin sets during the playoffs. Darren Joe (Westlake) is a rising star in the Marmonte League. A freshman, Joe reached the semifinals of the league singles tournament, losing to Varvais. He was 41-9 in sets. Dylan Mann (Taft) is a top 18-and-under player on the Southern California juniors circuit who reached the City singles final as a sophomore. A junior, Mann was 10-0 in match play and 12-0 in sets during the playoffs but did not compete in the section championship because of personal reasons. Darren Miller (Calabasas), a 6-foot-2 senior who intimidated opponents with a serve-and-volley attack, was 41-2 in sets and will walk on at UCLA next season. James Oh (Chatsworth), a junior, was 7-3 during the regular season but got hot in the post-season singles tournament. He lost, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals to eventual champion Noah Newman of Marshall, the No. 2-ranked 18-and-under player in Southern California. Peter Webb (Ventura), a freshman, was 22-2 in singles and 5-1 in doubles in the Channel League, one of the toughest circuits in Southern California.