Tennis: Santa Monica Demolishes Arcadia 15-3 in Semifinal Match

The second-seeded Arcadia boys tennis team knew it would have a tough time with visiting Santa Monica in the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

What the Apaches didn’t know was that the Vikings were better than advertised.

As a result, Arcadia fell short of advancing to the CIF title match, losing 15-3.

“We felt we had a shot if everything went perfectly for us to win 10-8 or 9-9 in games,” Arcadia coach Jerry Dohling said. “We also said we had to win the majority of the close sets and that didn’t happen either. They were much better than we thought they were going to be in doubles.”

Santa Monica (13-3), the third seed and Ocean League champion, stunned Arcadia (22-1) by winning all six sets in the first round of play.

“We knew this was a tough match because they were the 2-seed,” Santa Monica coach Wilston Poon said of Arcadia. “(Our) guys rose to the occasion and got pumped for this. They got off to a great start and stayed strong.”

Santa Monica won all nine sets in singles thanks to the play of Cal Lutheran-bound senior Conner Treacy, ranked No. 52 in the South California Tennis Association’s 18-and-under ranking, and No. 2 player Cristobal Rivera, ranked No. 16 in the 16-and-under division.

Andrew You, playing as Arcadia’s No. 1 singles player, lost 6-1 to Treacy and 6-2 to Santa Monica No. 3 player Conrad McKinnon.

After Santa Monica had already clinched the victory following the second round, both teams made some substitutions.

Arcadia’s Matt Rapkin substituted You and fell 6-1 to Rivera.

Arcadia No. 2 singles player Albert Chen lost 6-0 to Treacy and 6-2 to Rivera, before being replaced by Alvin Su, who lost 6-0 to McKinnon.

Travis Tu, normally Arcadia’s top player, played as the No. 3 player. His day began with a 7-5 loss to McKinnon and then a 6-3 loss to Rivera. Ryan Chuang substituted in against Treacy and fell 6-0.

In doubles, Arcadia’s top team of seniors Hardy Lou and George Chiu fell to 6-1 to Santa Monica’s team of Alex Baettig and Zach Resnick. They rebounded to defeat the No. 2 team of Ben Gelfand and Peter Harding, 6-2, and the No. 3 team of Kellogg Adams and Brett Friedland, 6-2.

Arcadia’s No. 2 team of Arnav and Apporv Chaudhary went 0-6, 1-6, 6-2 with the win coming over Friedland and substitute partner Chris Yuan.

The No. 3 team of Dustin Lieu and Eric Goo went 5-7, 6-7 (7-3), 2-6.

“They were clearly the stronger team today and we wish them well in the finals,” Dohling said. “If some team is better than they are, they must be some heck of a team. They way they played today they were clearly stronger than we are.”