Carlmont sophomore Lucas Rowe wins program’s first-ever Central Coast Section boys’ tennis title

“Originally, I was actually not going to play, but a couple friends and people who were on the team ... they convinced me to play on the team,” Rowe said. “They really wanted me on it.”

Rowe went on to post a 30-1 record, including a Peninsula Athletic League singles championship in a head-to-head win over Zhang in an all-Carlmont pairing. Then came the biggest surprise of all, as Rowe delivered the first Central Coast Section boys’ tennis championship in Carlmont history with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-7 win Wednesday over Saratoga senior Somei Ogata at Imperial Courts Tennis Club in Aptos.

Not only did Rowe overcome a loss in the opening set, he fell into a ginormous 4-0 hole in the super tiebreaker. The sophomore, though, has gained a reputation as something of a comeback kid.

“Lucas is very good at coming back when he’s down,” Carlmont head coach Carlos Flores said. “He’s really good at staying calm and collected and can maintain his composure, and is much better at that than most high schoolers, I would say.”

Rowe responded to the deficit with 5-1 run to tie it, then jumped ahead after the changeover. Come championship point, Rowe and Ogata locked up for one of the longest rallies of the match, approximately 20 or more volleys, Rowe said. Ogata finally went for a crosscourt blast that just missed the mark, falling an inkling outside the line to end it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever screamed that loud when I’ve won a point before,” Rowe said.

Prior to the season, Flores had never seen Rowe play. The first-year head coach served as a varsity assistant last year when Rowe was at Pinewood, but does work at Carlmont as an AP statistics teacher. That gives him something in common with Rowe’s father John, who has taught business and marketing classes at Carlmont for nearly a decade.

“Then I met [Rowe] and he was the nicest student you can ever meet,” Flores said. “And then I saw him play, and could tell he was definitely a great player.”

Rowe’s first win of the season made a fast impression on Flores — like, 30 minutes fast, as in the time of the match, which, in tennis terms, means it was over in a flash.

“I think in the first match I was just surprised how quickly he won the match,” Flores said. “It just really surprised me. ... If you can win a match in 30 minutes, that’s like total domination.”

Rowe becomes just the fifth player in PAL history to win a boys’ tennis singles championship, and the first in 16 years. The last was Menlo-Atherton’s Alec Haley in 2010. Burlingame’s Erik Van Dillen was the first in 1966, followed by El Camino’s John Soto in 1982 and Aragon’s Steve Benvenuto in 2005 and ’06.

With the CCS singles tournament opening Monday, Rowe, the No. 2 seed, made his way through the bracket with Day 1 wins over Menlo’s Sage Ash 6-4, 6-3; and Soquel’s Hudson Ward 7-5, 6-3. In Wednesday’s semifinals, he got past Sacred Heart Prep’s Zade Azmeh 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the finals to meet the No. 1 seed Ogata.

“Yeah, he’s such a solid player that that match was very mental,” Rowe said. “There’s so many ups and downs. After I dropped the first set, I tried to refocus. I got a little lucky in that second set; I won a lot of deuce points. And I think I started to play a little smarter in that second set.”