Boys’ Tennis: Sailors stay in second in league

The Newport Harbor High campus was unusually empty on Thursday afternoon, understandable given that the Newport Mesa Unified School District is on spring break this week.

Still, the Sailors boys’ tennis team came into a key Sunset League match against Los Alamitos at full strength. The Griffins aren’t on spring break until next week, but they were shorthanded by comparison.

Los Alamitos Coach Jordan Bridge said his team was missing singles starter Colter Smith (back) and doubles starters Mikey Sanger (sick) and Andrew Wakamoto (on a mission trip).

Still, the Griffins proved too strong.

Los Alamitos earned an 11-7 victory that all but clinched the Griffins’ sixth straight Sunset League title. Los Alamitos (8-4, 7-0 in league) is two matches up on second-place Newport Harbor (13-4, 5-2) with three league matches remaining.

Seniors Ethan Kolsky and Naara Shin each won two singles sets for the visitors, and the doubles team of senior Nick Vogt and freshman Adrian Pedroza easily swept, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.

“It’s huge,” Bridge said. “A really, really big win today. They’re always a competitive team with us, and [Newport Harbor] Coach Kristen [Case] does a really good job … We talked about it on the bus, how we’ve got to come out here and be consistent, stay calm in every point, take our time, use patience today. I think all these guys did it.”

The score was the same as the first time the teams met in league, even though the Sailors were without freshman standout Max McKennon in that match. McKennon played Thursday and swept in singles, 6-0, 6-3, 6-0, to improve to 21-0 this season.

Kolsky subbed out due to sickness in the third round, as McKennon missed an anticipated matchup with the senior. But he did notch an impressive 6-3 win over Shin in the second round.

“It’s a great win,” said McKennon, a lefty who dealt with a left wrist injury early in the season. “I felt like I’m back to 100%, finally. I think I’m probably playing as well as I was before I got injured, so that’s great.”

But Los Alamitos took a 4-2 lead after the first round, and an 8-4 lead after two rounds. The Griffins were stronger in doubles than in the teams’ first league meeting, when Newport Harbor won seven of nine sets in doubles. In Thursday’s meeting, the Sailors won just three doubles sets.

Owen Kaminski and Spencer Sween, as well as Sean McCann and Sam Song, each won twice in doubles for the visitors. McCann and Song finished off the match by rallying from a 5-1 deficit to claim a 7-6 (8-6) win against Newport Harbor’s David Sharp and Andy Myers.

“Those are two guys you don’t usually see in our doubles lineup, and they came out and they fought really hard today,” Bridge said. “They played smart, they moved at the net, they played well together. We just really couldn’t ask for anything more from those guys.”

Case was also proud of her team’s effort. David Lee won once in singles, and the doubles team of Mark Schaefer and Sam Leaman won two of three sets. Sharp and Myers won once. But the Griffins, ranked No. 2 in Orange County and No. 7 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, proved too strong.

“We knew that it was going to be a battle,” Case said. “We were ready for it. We showed up ready to compete, and they outplayed us today. Obviously, Los Al has a lot of depth, that’s why they’re ranked where they are. They’re deep and they’re good, and they put you in a position where all of a sudden you’re making a lot more unforced errors than you’re used to making. That was the difference today; our unforced error count was way too high. And if you want to put yourself in an opportunity to beat a team like Los Al, you can’t make unforced errors.”

The rest of the Sunset League has spring break next week, so Newport Harbor’s next league match isn’t until April 24 against Edison. The Sailors can clinch outright second place in league by winning out.

“We’re still in a great position,” Case said. “We’ve got to continue to work on getting better and improving, so that we can close out the rest of our league doing what we want to do, which is win every match.”

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