Lenaway beats Harrison in finals, Lopez in semifinals for league tennis singles championship

Fallbrook High School not only hosted the Valley League individual tennis tournament May 11-13 at the Fallbrook Tennis Club but also had both singles finalists and three of the four singles semifinalists.

Riley Lenaway won the league singles title May 13 with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in the finals over fellow sophomore Declan Harrison. In the semifinals, Lenaway won a 6-1, 6-1 match against junior John David Lopez.

"I was very happy for him," said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway.

All league singles and doubles semifinalists qualified for the following week's CIF tournament at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, as did the quarterfinal singles and doubles losers who recovered by winning the playoff games for fifth place. Max Alperstein and Casey Eich, both Fallbrook sophomores in their first year of tennis, captured the fifth-place position and the final Valley League doubles berth in the CIF tournament.

"We did wonderfully," Bill Lenaway said. "To have five of nine players on our team going into CIF, I think that was great."

In dual matches, each school fields three singles players and three doubles tandems. In the league tournament, each school is allowed up to four singles players and four doubles teams. Fallbrook did not utilize a fourth singles player or doubles team. "I have only nine players, so that's all we can do," Lenaway said.

Mission Vista and Oceanside do not have boys tennis, so the Valley League has four teams. Ramona won the Valley League team title with a 6-0 record in league dual matches while Fallbrook's 3-3 record placed the Warriors second. Ramona and Fallbrook closed out the regular season against each other April 28 on the Riviera Oaks courts in Ramona; the 13-5 Ramona victory included Bulldogs freshman Brandan Ruland winning all three of his sets to complete league play undefeated.

Ruland would have been the top seed in the league tournament, but two days before the league tournament began he broke a knuckle on his right hand in a non-tennis accident and was unable to participate in the tournament. "I was actually kind of hoping Riley would get to play him again," Bill Lenaway said.

Riley Lenaway was given the league tournament's top seed; Harrison was seeded second; Ramona senior Adam Mazzola was the third seed, and Orange Glen junior Tin Phan had fourth-seed status.

Had the Valley League consisted of five or six teams, singles and doubles play would have consisted of five rounds apiece and the tournament would have been a four-day event. The four-team league allowed for four rounds of play and eliminated the need to play May 14, when rain would have imperiled play that day and the following day. The first two singles rounds were played May 11, the first two doubles rounds took place May 12, and the semifinals and finals for both singles and doubles were contested May 13.

Because Fallbrook did not have a fourth doubles team, only 15 doubles tandems participated in the league tournament and top-seeded Jonathan Glassell and Joseph Stehly from Valley Center had a first-round bye. Ruland's absence left Ramona as well as Fallbrook with only three singles players, so Lenaway and Harrison were both given first-round byes.

Lopez began singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Valley Center sophomore Mark Villalobos. That earned Lopez a quarterfinal match against Phan. Lopez took a 6-4 victory in the first set, but Phan prevailed in the 6-3 second set. If the players split the first two sets, a tiebreaking game to 10 points is played. Lopez won the tiebreaking game by a 10-8 score to advance to the semifinals against Lenaway, who reached that round with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Orange Glen junior Edgar Ramos.

Harrison followed his first-round bye with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Valley Center sophomore Ty Ashworth. The semifinal match between Harrison and Mazzola began with Mazzola's 6-3 triumph in the first set. Harrison evened the match with a 6-2 victory. The winner of the tiebreaking game must not only score at least 10 points but must also win by two points, and Harrison's final point made the score 11-9 in his favor. Ashworth was the eventual winner of the playoff for fifth place.

Alperstein and Eich were seeded fourth among doubles tandems and were scheduled for a first-round match, but an Orange Glen injury default advanced the Fallbrook duo to the quarterfinals without any play. Fallbrook freshman Brett Johnson and Stephen Shedd faced Ramona's Eric Taft and Josh McDonald in the first round and were on the losing end of the 6-2, 6-1 match. The third Fallbrook doubles team, sophomore Erik Garcia and freshman Drew Mings, lost a 6-3, 6-2 contest to Valley Center freshmen Alek Archipov and A.J. Zamora.

Alperstein and Eich faced Ramona seniors Chandler Mackenzie and Tyler Webb in the quarterfinals. Alperstein and Eich won the 6-4 first set, but Mackenzie and Webb countered with a 6-3 victory to force the tiebreaking game they won by a 10-0 margin. Alperstein and Eich began the playoff for fifth place with an 8-5 win against Ramona players Chris Cook and Alessio Macias before capturing the fifth-place game against Archipov and Zamora.

"It was a good day, a good tournament," Bill Lenaway said.