Carlmont’s Lucas Rowe, playing at No. 1 singles, lunges for a short ball during his 5-7, 6-0, 10-2 win. Both Both Diddy and Lo, and Rowe, all remained undefeated in PAL play this season.
Burlingame boys' tennis team qualifies for CCS team tournament after beating Carlmont 5-2 in the finals of the Peninsula Athletic League CCS play-in tournament
Burlingame’s Kieran Kilgo hits a stabbing, backhand volley as he and teammate Jake Druskin won their No.1 doubles match in straight sets over Carlmont to improve to 14-0 on the season. The Panthers beat the Scots 5-2 in the championship match of the PAL CCS play-in tournament.
Nathan Mollat/Daily Journal
Burlingame’s Tyler Diddy smashes a winner as he and teammate Aaron Lo won 6-1, 7-6(5) at No. 3 doubles to clinch the team win for Burlingame.
Nathan Mollat/Daily Journal
Carlmont’s Lucas Rowe, playing at No. 1 singles, lunges for a short ball during his 5-7, 6-0, 10-2 win. Both Both Diddy and Lo, and Rowe, all remained undefeated in PAL play this season.
A high school tennis match is a best-of-seven format, but when the Carlmont boys’ team, the No. 2 seed, traveled to top-seeded Burlingame for the Peninsula Athletic League Central Coast Section team tournament championship match, it was generally agreed the team score would be decided by just three matches.
Because four of the matches were near automatic wins. Luca Rowe, Carlmont’s No. 1 singles player, came into the match undefeated on the season, having not lost a set. The Scots’ No. 2 singles player, Aaron Zhang, was No. 1 last season and was also undefeated until he dropped his first match of the season against Aragon in the regular-season finale.
On the other side, Burlingame boasted a pair of undefeated doubles teams — Jake Druskin and Kieran Kilgo were 13-0 at No. 1 doubles, while the No. 2 doubles team of Aaron Lo and Tyler Diddy was also a perfect 13-0.
Not surprisingly, those four matches went the way it was expected. Rowe and Zhang won in singles and the Panthers’ pairs prevailed in their matches.
Considering the first two matches between these two teams were 4-3 decisions — Carlmont won March 10, with Burlingame prevailing April 14 — with both matches being decided at No. 3 singles, the thought process was Friday’s match would have a similar finish.
As it turned out, Burlingame not only dominated at No. 3 singles, the Panthers also won at No. 4 singles and got a doubles sweep as they punched their ticket to the CCS team tournament with a 5-2 victory.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” said Burlingame head coach Doug Stone.
While some may feel that playing in the four-team tournament puts additional wear on bodies, Stone took a different approach and praised the fact the Panthers were still playing.
“We started out yesterday (Thursday, the first day of the tournament), ‘We get to play today. Not everybody is playing,’” Stone said. “The extra play is great. You can’t get enough matches in.”
Led by Druskin and Kilgo at No. 1 doubles, Burlingame won the first four matches off the courts to clinch the team win. They waltzed to a 6-0 win in the first set of their match and lost only two games in the second as they gave the Panthers their first team point with a 6-0, 6-2 win to improve to 14-0 on the season — 12-0 during the regular season and now 2-0 in the postseason.
The No. 2 doubles team of Lo and Diddy bookended the match for the Panthers, as their straight-set win was the clinching fourth point.
But that tandem had to work a little harder. After dropping the first game, Lo and Diddy won the next six games in a row to take the first set. In the second, the Carlmont pair of Roen Subba and Aaroha Save had a chance to even the match, serving for the set, up 5-4.
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But Lo and Diddy got the break to pull even at 5-all and then held serve for a 6-5 lead. But Subba and Save also held serve to send the set to a tiebreak. the Burlingame duo jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the race to seven points, but the Carlmont pair rallied to take a 5-4 lead. But Lo and Diddy won the final three points to take the set and the match 6-1, 7-6(5).
Lo and Diddy are also 14-0 on the season.
“To go undefeated is very, very difficult. That is rare,” Stone said. “I’d say it’s more rare in doubles than singles.”
Between those doubles wins, Burlingame’s Alexander Bozinovic won 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3 singles, while Collin Phonsombat cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles.
Zhang rebounded from his loss Wednesday by winning in the first round against M-A Thursday and improved to 13-1 with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 2 singles for the Scots.
The most drama, however, came at No. 1 singles, where Carlmont’s Lucas Rowe found himself in an unfamiliar position — playing from behind. Aragon’s Caden Lam did what no one has managed this season by taking a set off Rowe. Trailing 5-4, Lam held serve to tie the first set at 5-all before he broke Rowe in the 11th game and then held again to post a 7-5 win.
It was the first set Rowe has lost this season.
How did he respond? With authority. Rowe would hammer Lam in the second, winning the set at love to set up a third set, super tiebreaker — the first player to 10 points would be the winner.
It wasn’t really close. Rowe broke Lam’s serve when he put a return into the net to knot the tiebreaker at 2-all. Rowe then went on to win the final eight points to post a 5-7, 6-0, 10-2 victory for the Scots’ second team point.
Burlingame earned its fifth point of the day when the No. 3 doubles team of Darren Wagner and Gregory Kozakov won 6-2, 7-5.
“We made an adjustment at 4 singles and Phonsombat has been rock solid at 4 singles. And we got Alexander Bozinovic back at the end of the season at 3 singles, (which) added significant depth. And 3 doubles has proven to be the strongest of several teams in that position,” Stone said. “So we really solidified our ladder late in the season.”
The PAL singles and doubles individual tournaments begin Tuesday and run through Thursday, while the CCS team tournament is scheduled to begin May 5.
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