Santa Barbara High's Mitchell Kuhn, with doubles partner Jack Damen in the foreground, volleys during their second set.
In a reminder of how evenly matched the boys tennis teams from Santa Barbara High and Palos Verdes have been this season, the Sea Kings and Dons tied 9-9 once again in Tuesday’s CIF Division 1 quarterfinal match.
Just like the first time, Palos Verdes tipped the result in its favor with a 79-74 advantage in total games.
“So we’ve played them twice now. It’s 18-18. It’s unbelievable how close it is with them,” said Dons head coach Greg Tebbe.
Austin Trevillian was a vocal cheerleader for the Dons on the court.
The score was tied 3-3, 6-6 and 9-9 after each round. Two of Santa Barbara’s doubles teams – Logan Liddell/Morgan Hale and Austin Trevillian/Avery Chernin – won tiebreakers in tight sets.
“We were kind of hanging by a thread the whole time,” Tebbe said. “Each round, we needed to win that last match to stay even with them. So they were kind of on top of us the whole match but our guys just hung in there.”
Palos Verdes, the division’s fourth-ranked team, won six of nine singles sets, led by Jake Douglas’ 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 sweep. Trent Wong added two wins from the No. 3 position.
“My 3 beating Graham Maassen was huge,” said Sea Kings head coach Danny Moscovici. “Nobody’s ever going to look at that but that one’s a big one for us.”
Another pivotal win for PV came in the final round as Brett Landon and Dylan Holt held off a determined Trevillian-Chernin team and its home crowd for a 6-4 win.
While the Sea Kings move into their second-straight CIF semifinal, the Dons make their second-straight quarterfinal exit.
“We’re just fortunate to win these close ones,” Moscovici said. “We just keep trying to keep better and improve things in doubles and singles.”
Santa Barbara won the Channel League this year and finishes with a 13-3 record.
Fourth-seeded Palos Verdes (16-2) takes on top-seeded University in the semifinals, scheduled for next Tuesday.
MORE TO COME
PALOS VERDES 9, SANTA BARBARA 9
PV wins on games 79-74SB Singles: Pollero 2-1, Maassen 1-2, Chung 0-3. PV Singles: Douglas 3-0, Gong 1-2, Wong 2-1.
SB Doubles: Liddell/Hale 3-0, Kuhn/Damen 2-1, Trevillian/Chernin 1-2.?PV Doubles: Landon/Holt 1-2, DelloVade/Mukai 2-1, Spetta/Miller 0-3.
