CLAREMONT – When Los Alamitos boys tennis coach Jordan Bridge took over the program this year, he could not have expected the incredible season that his team would have.
The Griffins entered Saturday’s CIF Southern California Regional final undefeated. Their counterpart, Torrey Pines of San Diego, had also achieved that feat, providing a near perfect ending for the season finale.
Behind a pair of doubles victories, Torrey Pines held off Los Alamitos, 4-3, as the Falcons capped an unblemished season at the Claremont Club.
Charlie Pei’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over George Cooper gave Torrey Pines (31-0) its decisive fourth point after five matches.
“At the change of court, my coach told me that we needed just one more match,” Pei said. “I was serving for it. I felt nervous, but it felt good to beat them.”
Things appeared to be going the Griffins’ way early. Riley Smith, who had never beaten Torrey Pines’ blue-chip prospect Jacob Brumm in a tournament, powered his way to a 6-2, 6-1 win over the Falcons’ sophomore.
Torrey Pines, which won the No.1 doubles matchup handily, also took the No.4 singles point. After the Los Alamitos duo of Danny Lassos and Nick Vogt fell to Jiayong Li and Timmy Holdsworth, 6-4, 6-2, the Griffins were in trouble.
Down a set, Naara Shin and Brian Bales were forced to a play a second-set tiebreaker against Jonathon Park and Alex Scemanenco to try to extend the match. The Griffins’ No.2 doubles team went up 6-2 in the tiebreaker, but the Falcons pairing rallied. Park and Scemanenco erased the four set points, and Los Alamitos’ chances for the regional title were pushed to the brink with a match point.
Los Alamitos (21-1) fought off the match point, and after back-to-back overheads by Bales and Shin, the Griffins No.2 doubles team tied their match at a set apiece.
Moments later, Pei gave Torrey Pines the team victory. Bales and Shin went on to win in a match tiebreaker. Vatsal Bajpai also won from the No.2 singles spot, defeating Raul De La Torre, 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (8).
“I’m just so proud of these guys,” Bridge said. “We left it all out on the court. We wanted to end the season the right way, and even though we didn’t get the win, we still did.”
