CIF boys tennis championships underway
Playing in the third spot from the Bay League, Mira Costa’s boys tennis team hit the road for the first round of the CIF Southern Section-Ford Division 1 Tennis Championships but the bus ride home was much longer for the Mustangs (12-8)who suffered an 11-7 loss to Santa Margarita (17-2) on Wednesday.
Redondo earned an at-large berth and defeated host San Marcos 9-9 (77-64 in games) in a wild-card match on Tuesday. Derek Levchenko and Christian Grantz won two-of-three singles sets apiece and the doubles teams of Kyle Rosenberg-Ryan Lee and Sho Nioka-Sean Mitchell each won two sets in the win.
Unfortunately for the Sea Hawks, their first-round contest was at top-seeded University (17-0) which maintained its unblemished record with a 17-2 win over Redondo (13-9).
Bay champion Palos Verdes (16-2) earned a No. 4 seed and eliminated visiting Loyola 11-7 on Wednesday and Westlake 13-5 in the second round on Friday. The Sea Kings advanced and defeated fifth-seeded Santa Barbara 9-9 (79-74) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Tenth-seeded Peninsula (11-9) won its first-round home match against Dos Pueblos 11-7 but lost at sixth-seeded Calabasas 13-5 in the second round.
In Division 2, Chadwick (10-6) defeated Foothill 10-8 before knocking off fifth-seeded Beverly Hills 12-6 in the second round. The Dolphins lost to visiting Burroughs/Burbank 10-8 on Tuesday.
Pioneer champion South Torrance (11-7) defeated visiting Malibu 13-5 then lost at second-seeded Whitney 13-3 in the second round of the Division 3 playoffs.
North Torrance (6-12) saw its season end with a 15-3 first-round loss at No. 3 St. Margaret’s (11-2).
In Division 5, Del Rey champion Bishop Montgomery (13-3) knocked off visiting Whittier Christian 14-4 in the first round. The ninth-seeded Knights proceeded to eliminate No. 8 San Gorgonio 12-6 on Friday but lost at top-seeded Arlington 15-3 in the quarterfinals.
All matches with the exception of the finals are slated to start at 3 p.m. Complete brackets are available at www.cifss.org.