Sage Hill Wins Its First CIF Title in Boys Tennis

Students at Sage Hill High had a choice to make on Wednesday. They could stay at school and attend an assembly or they could board a bus for a one-hour trip north to The Claremont Club, where they could cheer on their boys tennis team as it competed for the CIF Southern Section Division 4 team championship.

More than 100 of the Newport Coast school's 400-plus student body chose to make the trip, and as they stormed the hardcourt to celebrate the Lightning's 10-8 victory over Valencia of Placentia, they knew they had made the right choice.

The match, which marked Sage Hill's first section championship in boys tennis, had it all -- a gutsy performance, an upset, some unexpected results and a final set that would determine the winner, played with everybody looking on.

The gutsy performance belonged to Sage Hill senior Andrew Kurzweil, who injured an abdominal muscle in last week's semifinal victory over Cerritos. Because of that, he did not hit a single ball in practice with the team in an effort to heal up for the championship match. Even with all the rest, the Sage Hill captain was not at full strength.  In fact, he had to serve underhand.

“It hurt like hell,” Kurzweil said. “Whenever I went to hit a smash or an overhead shot, it hurt. I couldn’t serve. I didn’t get to practice the [underhand] serve but by the third set, I had it down.” 

Just playing was a tough move on Kurzweil’s part. But then you look at the results and realize that the young man put in a performance he and his teammates will remember for a long time.  Kurzweil and his doubles partner, sophomore Ryan Lee, won their sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.

Ryan Lee said of the 6-4 matches that on both occasions, “I was on serve knowing my partner trusted me, that we had the momentum. Andrew was amazing. He was all over the net.”

The upset of the match belonged to Sage Hill junior Robbe Simon. 

Valencia packed a powerful singles line-up. It was one of the main reasons the Tigers made it to the championship. The best of their singles players is nationally-ranked junior Jonathan Hammel.  Simon was up for the challenge from the get-go.

In the first game, Simon hit two winners and got the early break. He held serve to take a 2-0 lead. It was a quick start for Simon, but seemingly nothing insurmountable for Hammel. The turning point took place on the first serve of the third game as Simon hit a passing shot for a winner and broke Hammel’s serve again. Simon now led, 3-0. He held serve to go up 4-0. Simon won the set at 6-2.

“It’s my biggest win of the season. [Hammel] is the best player I have played this year,” Simon said. “I can’t really even remember it, it just went so fast.”

After the second round of sets, Sage Hill was ahead, 7-5, and coach A.G. Longoria said, “We were ahead in the semifinals, 7-5, and we were able to win four games for the victory. The game plan stays the same.”

The final round didn’t work out exactly as planned for Sage Hill.  Unexpectedly, the Lightning's doubles team of senior Sean Batten and freshmen Eric Magliarditi were unable to get any set victories. Longoria said the duo had a rough day and that they had played much better than that throughout the season.  He was expecting to get a couple of sets from the team, but things didn’t work out that way.

Batten and Magliarditi didn’t lose heart though. They fought hard in each set and won nine total games.

The championship came down to the final set of the afternoon between the Sage Hill's doubles team of senior Kevin Marshack and junior Alex Manolakos against Valencia’s Daniel Kim and Lindsey Youngquist. Sage Hill was leading, 9 sets to 8, and the teams were tied on number of games won.  The scoring was simple for this one -- whoever won the final set would win the match and be Division 3 champions.

The set was tied 4-4 and Manolakos was serving. Ahead 15-love, Marshack hit a volley winner at the net to go up 30-love. Marshack ended the game with a mishit that went off the end of his racquet but bounced in to give his team a 5-4 lead. 

Kim served next for Valencia. With a crowd of Sage Hill students and players looking on, Kim made an error that gave the game, the set and the match to Sage Hill. 

“I had this goal since my freshmen year,” said Kurzweil on winning the final. “This team has been special since the beginning. We had the depth. It seemed like three to four players would always step up for us.”

Added Simon: “I am really proud of these guys. We went up a division this year and were still able to win it.  We worked our butts off all year.”

Manolakos also credited the tough workouts for the team's success,saying, “We have been working hard since our first match back on February 28. We have had two-a-days and were practicing literally the hardest we ever had.  Things fell into place today because of our hard work.”

Before the match, Longoria looked over to this reporter, smiled and said “It’s gonna be fun.” Fun indeed.