BTen: Perera, Rodnick-Lender advance out of sectionals

Kento Perera of San Marcos advanced out of the CIF Sectionals with a pair of straight-sets victories.

Kento Perera of San Marcos advanced out of the CIF Sectionals with a pair of straight-sets victories.

Kento Perera of San Marcos and the Santa Barbara High doubles team of Jordan Rodnick and Logan Lender advanced out of the CIF Sectionals individual tournament at Cate School on Thursday.

Perera, the two-time Channel League singles champion won a pair of matches after a first-round bye. He swept Max Prestwich of Nordhoff, 6-0, 6-3 and Andrew Whitehouse of Westlake, 6-1, 6-2.

The Dons duo of Rodnick-Lender won in straight sets over Rio Mesa (6-2, 6-1) in the second round and defeated Brentwood (6-2, 6-2) to move on to the main draw.

The next round is June 4-5 at Whittier Narrows and Seal Beach.

In other action at Cate, Lars Scannell of San Marcos opend with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Zack Derse of Rio Mesa before falling to Myles Webb of Oaks Christian, 6-2, 6-2.

Two-time Frontier League singles champion Spencer Ekola of Bishop Diego knocked off Guillermo Bonnett of San Luis Obispo, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round and fell to Valencia’s Chad LeDuff, 6-2, 6-0, in the third round.

Kevin Ha of Cate won a first-round match over Dustin Kua (Trinity Classical), 6-3, 7-5 and lost his second-round match against Adam Scraberg of Harvard Westlake, 6-2, 6-0.

In doubles, Santa Barbara’s No. 2 team of Taggart Mills/Tyler Greenwald swept Carpinteria’s team of Jonathan Cleek/Bryan Taira, 6-1, 6-0 and fell to Oaks Christian 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Cleek/Taira won their first-round match over Lompoc’s Oscar Ramirez/Juan Baez, 6-4, 6-1.

Michael Nettesheim and Christian Herman represented Cate School and the Tri Valley League as league champions. Cate’s tandem drew a tough draw, and lost to a fine doubles team from Brentwood 4-6, 2-6. This was great first round CIF tennis from two very talented teams, and the score was a lot closer than the game count might suggest. Overall, some very strong doubles play throughout the match.

“They fought through some jitters and nerves at the start but once they settled in and relaxed they played smart and did a good job of finishing points and subsequently frustrating the Braves team,” coach Charles Bryant said.

Bryant believed it was the first win by a Carpinteria team at the CIF sectionals in several years.

Cate’s Michael Nettesheim and Christian Herman drew a tough draw, and lost to team from Brentwood, 6-4, 6-2.

“This was great first-round CIF tennis from two very talented teams, and the score was a lot closer than the game count might suggest,” Cate coach Bob Bonning said. “Overall, some very strong doubles play throughout the match.”