Aragon Dons dominant in CCS tennis opener

So unless a school is one of those top-eight seeds that receives a first-round bye, the rest of the tournament is simply the luck of the draw: the first name drawn is the visiting team, the second is the home team.

Aragon nearly got one of those first-round byes as head coach Dave Owdom made the argument the Dons should be one of the top eight seeds following an undefeated run through the Peninsula Athletic League.

Aragon ultimately lost out to Los Altos, meaning the Dons had to play a first-round match Wednesday.

“I tried to push us for the No. 8 seed,” Owdom said. “But our league doesn’t get a lot of respect.”

At least there was a consolation prize for Aragon — a home match against Mitty. And the Dons went out and proved they at least belonged in the conversation for a top-eight seed after they easily handled the Monarchs, 6-1.

You don’t know the team (you’re going to play), but you know it’s going to be a good team,” Owdom said. “The WCAL is a good league.”

Mitty was one of three teams from the WCAL to receive at-large bids and Owdom was happy to see his squad rise to the challenge.

“It’s nice to see my guys play competitively against a WCAL school,” Owdom.

And the match really wasn’t close. Aragon (13-1 overall) won the first set in six of the seven matches and quickly took a 2-0 lead in the team race to four points as Aragon won at No. 3 and No. 4 singles in less than an hour.

Keiya Wada continues his sparkling play at No. 4 singles, where he needed about 40 minutes to post a 6-0, 6-1 win. Wada, a four-year varsity starter, had spent his first three years playing at No. 1 doubles and started in that spot this year with his longtime doubles partner Thomas Nie.

But Owdom moved Wada into the No. 4 singles spot midway through the season. He is now 7-0 in singles matches this year.

“What you have with [Wada] is he’s very smart and very experienced,” Owdom said. “He’ll play the point the way it is.”

Wada was followed off the court about 10 minutes later by teammate Darren O’Brien. The hard-hitting No. 3 singles player was even more dominant than Wada, winning his match at love.

The Aragon No. 3 doubles team of Justin Wong and Adam Beg gave the Dons their third point with a 6-2, 6-0 win, but Mitty (11-6) was hanging in at the other four matches.

Viv Khanna and Samarth Prajapati, playing at No. 2 doubles for Mitty, dropped the first set to Aragon’s Max Gan and Ziv Rapoport, 6-1 — despite calling for line judges after just the first point of the match.

Gan and Rapoport opened the set by breaking the serve of the Monarchs’ duo and broke them two more times to take the opening set.

Khanna and Prajapati returned the favor in the second set, rushing past the Dons’ pair for a 6-2 decision to send it to a third-set, super tiebreaker. The Mitty tandem built an early 4-2 lead in the race to 10 points, but Gan and Rapoport won eight of the final nine points to pick up the Dons’ fourth team point and secure a spot in Friday’s second round.

Aragon secured its fifth team point when the No. 1 doubles team of Nie and Jack He got a break in each set to post a 6-4, 6-4 decision.

The Dons got their sixth point at No. 1 singles, where Akbar Beg rallied from being down in the first to win in straight sets. He was broken by Mitty’s Alexander Sanford during his first service game and Sanford held on to that break all the way through the rest of the set.

Until he was serving for the set, up 6-5. But Beg got the break to send it to a tiebreaker. Hitting sizzling winners, Beg won the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the first set 7-6.

Beg then took out his opponent 6-1 in the second set.

“That was a good win for Akbar,” Owdom said.

Up next for the Dons is a match in San Jose against sixth-seeded Lynbrook (12-4) at 4 p.m. Friday. Joining Aragon in the second round is Burlingame (12-3). The Panthers, which finished second behind the Dons in the Bay Division standings, took a road trip to the Santa Cruz area, knocking off Soquel, 5-2. Next up for the Panthers is a matchup with No. 2 Harker (12-3).

Menlo-Atherton, the third team to qualify out of the PAL, was playing Evergreen Valley. That result was not available at press time.