Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Chargers, Longhorns each net division championships in BVAL tennis action

By Mike Barnhart

TWhile the Leland boys tennis team put together another banner season in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League this spring, Leigh's squad was equally as impressive in the Santa Teresa circuit.

Led by junior singles standouts Stacey Klinger and Thomas Norton, Leland won 11 of 12 Mt. Hamilton matches and captured its third straight division title. The Chargers, 13-4 overall, secured sole possession of first place by knocking off runner-up Evergreen Valley 6-1 on April 17. Leland and Evergreen Valley (10-2) earned two of the BVAL's four automatic entries into the Central Coast Section championship tournament, April 30-May 9.

Leigh also won 11 of 12 division matches, finishing in a first-place tie with Silver Creek. Then, Leigh beat the Raiders in a tiebreaker match on April 21. Leigh freshman Hanson Hermsmeier fell in straight sets in the top singles match, but senior Daniel Zohar and freshman Eric Chen won the feature doubles contest for the Longhorns.

Leigh, West Valley Division champion Sobrato (15-0) and the Mt. Hamilton Division's third- and fourth-place teams in a playoff tournament, April 23-25. The top two teams from the tourney will join Leland and Evergreen in the CCS tournament.

Paced by its top two singles players, Hermsmeier and senior captain Tyler Nii, Leigh's performance this spring was a great turnaround from the 4-8 record it posted in the Mt. Hamilton Division in 2007.

Juniors Joon Kim and Victor Thompson filled out Leigh's other singles positions for much of the season. The top doubles teams included Zohar and Chen at No. 1 and senior Avi Kofman and sophomore Brenden Dugan at No. 2.

Senior Aljosha Kovakovic, junior Felix Chen and junior Ayhan Erman all have been part of the No. 3 doubles unit and have filled in at No. 4 singles.

At the Santa Teresa Division singles and doubles tournaments April 18 at Mt. Pleasant, Nii and Hermsmeier combined to win the doubles title.

In the Mt. Hamilton individual tourney, which concluded on April 14 at Leland, Chargers Klinger and Norton reached the singles final. Klinger won by default, but both qualified for the BVAL singles and doubles tourney, May 9 and May 12 at Mt. Pleasant.

In the Mt. Hamilton doubles competition, two Leland duos lost in the semifinals, but they collided in the third-place match. Freshman Brian Higashi and junior Osheen Davoudi defeated sophomore Sam Hatamian and junior Jonathan Moh in straight sets.