Boys tennis: Corona del Mar seeking revenge in semis

Richard Dunn

CORONA DEL MAR - If Corona del Mar High’s boys tennis team needs

extra incentive today in the CIF Southern Section Division V semifinals,

it doesn’t need to look beyond its visiting opponent, Harvard-Westlake.

The fourth-seeded Wolverines ended the Sea Kings’ season last year,

when they edged CdM in the Division I semifinals on games, 87-81, after a

9-9 tie.

Harvard-Westlake, however, lost three of its top players from last

year’s Division I finalist squad, while the top-seeded Sea Kings (21-0)

return their entire army.

“Our singles are very strong,” CdM Coach Tim Mang said Wednesday. “I

think they should do the job ... this will be our strong singles lineup

(in today’s 3:15 p.m. match). We’re going for nine (out of nine sets) in

singles.”

UC Irvine-bound senior Brian Morton, junior standout Cameron Ball and

sophomore sensation Garrett Snyder lead Corona del Mar in singles.

Today’s winner will advance to the Division V championship match May

30 at the Claremont Club at 11:30 a.m. against the San Marino-Brentwood

winner from the playoff bracket’s lower half. San Marino is seeded third,

Brentwood second.

“Hopefully we’ll face Brentwood again,” said Mang, whose team defeated

the Eagles in a nonleague match earlier this season, 10-8, giving

Brentwood (21-1) its only setback.

Like CdM, Brentwood defeated Peninsula earlier this year in a

nonleague match. “We’re the only two teams, along with Peninsula, which

have played all the top teams (in the Southern Section),” Mang said.

Corona del Mar, which won the CIF Division I championship two years

ago, has yet to be tested in the Division V playoffs. It beat St.

Bonaventure of Ventura on the road in the quarterfinals Tuesday, 15-3.

Jesse Fertilano, who won two of three singles sets against CdM last

year in the semifinals, is Harvard-Westlake’s top player. “He’s tough in

singles, but we should handle all the others,” Mang said.