Tennis athletes from La Cañada High School and St. Francis participated in the 117th annual Ojai Valley Tournament last weekend.
LCHS 8th-grader Ryan Morgan, ranked in the top five in the boys’ 14 USTA, made an unprecedented run in the 14-and-under singles tournament and defeated Takeyasu Sekiguchi, 6-4, 7-6 (4), to win the championship.
Morgan opened the tournament defeating Naoya Fukumoto, 6-0, 6-2, in the first round last Thursday, and followed that with another victory over Andy Hess of Somis, 6-2, 6-0. The Spartan carried his winning ways into Friday, defeating Ojai’s Haktan Garayev, 6-1, 6-3, and J.J. Henderson of Indian Wells, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in a highly-contested quarterfinal match. Morgan downed Lucas Pastor of Bellevue in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-1.
La Cañada Flintridge resident Tsehay Driscoll competed in the girls’ 14-and-under singles tournament and reached the semifinals. The local tennis standout defeated Liza Tankimovich of Granada Hills, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, in the first round and then downed Isabella Foshee of Encinitas, 6-3, 6-3. Driscoll then edged Erica Ekstrand of Santa Monica, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4, and got past Palos Verdes’ Phoebe Peus, 6-3, 6-2, in a quarterfinal match. The local tennis standout was denied a championship bid by Kenadee Semenik of Las Vegas, 6-3, 6-2.
John and Ian Freer represented St. Francis in the 117th annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament last weekend and made an impressive run in the CIF Doubles bracket.
The Golden Knights won four matches to reach the semifinals, where they faced No. 1-seeded Bryce Pereira and Connor Lee of San Marino. The Freer brothers gave the Titans their toughest match but were denied a championship bid in the prestigious tournament.
John and Ian opened the tournament with a victory over Mike Elizalde and Dakota Martin of Ojai Nordhoff High last Thursday. The St. Francis duo followed that with another victory over Justin Lay and Tommy Folsom of Glendora. They carried their winning ways into Friday’s matches with victories over Hans Hwang and Soomin Lee of Irvine University and Mitchell Davis and Ryan Dehmoubed of Carlsbad La Costa Canyon High.
LCHS athletes Lucas Chmielewski and Phillip Lan teamed up to compete in the CIF boys’ doubles tournament. The duo defeated Corey Angeli and Christopher Torasco of San Clemente and then downed Clark Easterman and William Olson of La Jolla Bishop’s in the second round. The Spartans fell to eventual finalists Jed Kronenberg and Adam Sraberg of Studio City Harvard-Westlake in the round of 16.
Locals Compete in Prestigious Tennis Tournament
