San Marcos freshman Kento Perera has advanced to the Round of 32 of the CIF Individual Tennis Tournament.
Channel League singles champion Kento Perera of San Marcos continued his winning ways in the CIF individual tennis sectionals at Cate on Thursday, beating three opponents to advance to the Round of 32.
Perera, a freshman, defeated Tagger Mills of Santa Ynez, 6-0, 6-1, Westlake’s Andrew Whitehouse, 6-0, 3-0, retired, and Kevin Bondar of Oaks Christian, 6-4, 6-2.
Perera was one of four players at the Cate sectional to advance to the competition next Thursday at Whittier Narrows. The other players to advance are Harvard-Westlake’s Michael Genender, Chaminade’s Josh Quijano and Malibu’s Gabriel Rapoport.
“Kento controlled the majority of points today in all of his matches,” San Marcos coach Jarrod Bradley said. “While he made some unforced errors with his forehand, his aggressiveness in dictating from the baseline with his groundstrokes made the difference.”
Frontier League champion Spencer Ekola of Bishop Diego lost in the first round against Harrison Collins of West Ranch, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0.
Kevin Ha and Jason Xiao of Cate won their first-round singles matches and were eliminated in the second round.
In doubles, Mason Casady and Joshua Wang of Dos Pueblos won two matches before falling to fourth-seeded Jaird Meyer and Jason Vranek of Harvard Westlake, 6-4, 6-2, in the third round.
Casady and Wang finish their doubles’ season with a 56-4 record.
Channel League champions Patrick Corpuz and Miles Baldwin of DP also won two matches before losing to San Luis Obispo’s Mason Hansen and Josh Milla. Corpuz and Baldwin split sets and pushed for a third-set super tiebreaker. They fell 13-11.
“This is the first time in DP boys tennis history that we have fielded two teams in sectionals, Chargers coach Liz Frech said. “The last time we had a pair go to sectionals was in 2005, when Alex Edstrom and Kevin Cheng were Channel League finalists. They reached the third round as well.
“This magical season will not be forgotten,” she added. “Hard work, humility, and humor, along with patience, perseverance, and team support have guided us all through this season.”
Bishop Diego’s doubles team of Matt Hammond and Jose Pacheco fell in the first round against Noah Cleere/Alex Dill of San Luis Obispo, 6-2, 6-0.
