Boys tennis preview: New divisions, new challenges for the playoffs

By Kenny Connolly | kconnolly@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: March 10, 2017 at 10:33 p.m. | UPDATED: April 5, 2017 at 4:15 p.m.

The faces playing for a CIF-SS Division 1 team title come mid-May figure to be familiar ones.

County powers University and Los Alamitos should play their way deep into the postseason alongside Harvard-Westlake of Studio City, Peninsula and San Marino, all squads that have made a finals appearance in the last three years.

A little more than two weeks into the regular season, those same programs have separated themselves from the pack again, albeit a new-looking pack thanks to the CIF’s new competitive equity system that has shuffled up the playoff divisions.

Joining University and Los Alamitos in the Division 1 pool, which is comprised of 33 schools, are Corona del Mar, Beckman, San Clemente, Santa Margarita, Woodbridge, Valencia, Crean Lutheran, Northwood and Cypress. The Tritons, Eagles and Saints were Division 2 teams a season ago.

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BOYS TENNIS PREVIEW

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Having battled it out the last two seasons in the Division 3 championship match, Cypress and Valencia made the biggest leaps, jumping up two divisions to be placed with the section’s elites.

By reducing the batch of teams competing in Division 1, several local schools from power leagues have bee afforded a prime opportunity to cash in on the new playoff landscape.

Fountain Valley – the third-place team out of a deep Sunset League – was defeated 16-2 in the first-round of the Division 1 playoffs last season. Now a Division 2 team, the Barons have the pieces in play to be considered a top dog in that newly constructed field.

“We have an amazing opportunity for the players that we’ve got,” Fountain Valley coach Harshul Patel said. “They all know it and they’re all motivated. We’re working very hard right now, testing water out in preseason, working through our kinks so we’ll be rock solid by the start of league. We are one team that always improves.”

Capistrano Valley of the South Coast League dropped from Division 2 to Division 3. The Cougars will push their Division 1 counterpart, San Clemente, for a league championship this season behind senior twins Justin and Riley Wartenberg, who finished in second- and third-place at the league’s individual championships a season ago.

With sophomore Shawn Kim rounding out the singles lineup, Capistrano Valley appears to be another team that can cash in when May rolls around.