Carlmont tennis into PAL finals

Reznik was trailing Woodside’s No. 1 Hal Tuttle 3-2 in the first set at the time. The Scots’ freshman sensation dug the hole himself though, contributing to Tuttle’s early lead with many unforced errors, something Reznik attributed to taking the four previous days off due to illness.

“Something pushed me to get through it,” Reznik said. “I was a little bit sick. So, I had to get my emotions up. I was a little bit down.”

Reznik — the first freshman to earn Carlmont’s No. 1 seed since Corey Pang in 2010 — turned the momentum in a hurry to record Carlmont’s only singles win on the afternoon 6-4, 6-2. The southpaw plays a smooth brand of tennis, but stoked some fiery emotions after punctuating his first-set victory with a break point on a long, fluid drop shot from the backline that Tuttle errantly shot into the net.

Reznik closed the match with a break as well, extending Tuttle to his backhand at the sideline before forcing him to his forehand, causing the more experienced Woodside junior to miss wide and clinch the match for Carlmont.

“He’s a good player,” Tuttle said. “I think mentally, today I played a good match. Physically, I didn’t play bad, it just didn’t go my way. What are you going to do?”

Carlmont’s doubles did the rest by sweeping through Monday’s playoff opener. Carlmont No. 1 doubles Sohun Awsare and Bobby Goldie defeated Henry MacArthur and Payton Newcomb 6-1, 6-3; No. 2 doubles Jonathan Li and Kevin Xiang defeated Nick Fisher and Sam Jalalian 6-3, 6-1; and No. 3 doubles Chris Hing and Camron Dennler defeated Ethan Heywood and Chet Mac Arthur 6-4, 6-3.

“In the past, we’ve always been a doubles-strong team,” Carlmont head coach Amina Halsey said. “This year … many of them are fairly newer to playing in top 10 and playing at that higher caliber.”

Carlmont’s young doubles players have come into their own though. Halsey said she expected this to be a rebuilding year after so many seniors graduated from last year’s squad. The depth of young talent has proven a strength though.

“Our doubles are a strong team, so we usually count on them for wins,” said Awsare, one of just two starting seniors Monday’s lineup.

Much like Reznik in No. 1 singles play, Carlmont’s No. 1 doubles team had to overcome some fundamental letdowns. After cruising to a first-set win, Awsare and Goldie fell behind 3-2 in the second set. They did not lose another game thereafter though.

“Once we went up 4-3, after breaking their serve, I think we were good from there,” Awsare said.

Rounding out singles play, Woodside’s No. 2 Jose Lopez defeated Kevin Hutchaleelaha, in the afternoon’s longest match, 6-4, 7-6; and No. 3 Michael Mendelsohn defeated Alex Yang 6-2, 6-2; and No. 4 Levi Vignorshik defeated Nate Yeo 6-1, 6-2.

With the win, Carlmont advances to Tuesday’s PAL boys’ tennis finals at Aragon after the Dons defeated Mills 7-0 Monday.

Aragon’s No. 1 single Mathew Fowler defeated Kevin Reyes 6-4, 6-4; No. 2 single Lander Ngirchemat defeated Terrence Ho 6-0, 6-3; Jonathan Liu defeated Gordon Ly 6-0, 6-3; and David Wu defeated Jensen Leung 6-1, 6-1.

Aragon’s No. 1 doubles Alex Ilyin and Fabio Gallardo defeated Greg Ho and Brian Lee 6-0, 6-0; No. 2 doubles Tony Wang and Sameer Jain defeated Nathan Yang and Calvin Fong 6-0, 6-1; and No. 3 doubles William Miyahira and Kelvin Yang defeated Anthony Luo and Eric Quach 6-3, 6-0.

Aragon defeated Carlmont in the teams’ two previous matchups this season, first by a score 5-2 and later in the year 4-3.

“[The matches] were always three-setters and coming down to the tail end,” Halsey said.