Mira Costa reaches new heights on tennis court
Mira Costa’s Bay League championship tennis team includes (front row, left to right) Kyle Chen;, Ethan Han, Ben Choromanski, Nick Darrow, Ron Mizutani, Matthew Poh, (back row) Jon Scalabrini, Julien Lilla, Kyle Sillman, Shant Samuelian, Tim Dzhurinskiy and Evan Fortier. Missing: Julian Pastor. Photo courtesy of Donna Choromanski
Mira Costa’s boys tennis team not only claimed the Bay League crown this season, but has also advanced to the State Regional along with sending three athletes to the Individual Tournament.
“This year has been a very exciting journey with many firsts,” Mira Costa coach Joe Ciasulli said. “The team, boys or girls, was the first to win an outright Bay League title. The team won 19 regular season matches, which is impressive given that current CIF rules limit teams to 20 regular season matches.”
Mira Costa singles player Evan Fortier leads the Mustangs in the So Cal Regionals. Photo
Competing in the highly-talented Division 1 playoffs, Mira Costa began by defeating and La Canada before edging Corona del Mar on games 81 to 77. The Mustangs reached the semifinals of the Division 1 playoffs for the first time.
Although Mira Costa fell to eventual champion Harvard-Westlake 12-6, the match was extremely close through two rounds.
In singles, Evan Fortier won two sets 6-4 and 6-2 and in doubles, Tim Dzhurinskiy/Shant Samuelian won two sets 6-1 and 6-4.
Harvard-Westlake defeated Peninsula 13-15 in the championship match but by reaching the semifinals, Mira Costa qualified for the State So Cal Regionals to be held Friday at the Claremont Club.
“The journey is only starting for three of our players. Matthew Poh/Kyle Sillman won Bay League Individuals in doubles and Evan Fortier was the Bay League runner-up in singles.” Ciasulli said. “Both advanced to CIF Regional Individuals on Thursday. All three players received good news that they received a first round bye so they will only need to win two matches to advance to the next round.”