Several local scholastic tennis teams are looking for the ball to bounce their way when it comes to capturing CIF titles this spring.
At La Jolla High School, head coach Lenny Lee took the Vikings to a 19-2 record a season ago, where the team went unbeaten in both league play and in Division III action. The only two losses were to Division I schools Torrey Pines and Poway.
Key members of the 2007 team include seniors PJ Woolley, Trey Van Buskirk and Theo Lee; junior Kyle Van Buskirk; and sophomores Daniel Lapidus, Niko Karnopp, Max Einhorn and Harper Allan. Four freshmen ” Erwin Hernandez, Jerry Lin, Chris Langbort and William Zhang ” also made this year’s varsity team.
“The team has the talent to continue its string of successes in CIF and Western League,” head coach Lenny Lee said. “However, it is still early in the season and there is still work to do in matching up doubles teams and finding lineup combinations that work.”
At The Bishop’s School, head coach Jose Ruelas and the Knights were 6-4 in league action last season and were the fifth seed in Division III.
Bishop’s returns the core of last year’s team but also made some nice additions with two freshmen, Armen Abagyan and Robert Xie. Returning at number-one singles is senior Scottie Rogers, with nice depth in singles including sophomore Vasu Prathipati, senior Dave Casey, and returning seniors Michael Campbell (captain) and David Ruelas.
“We really need to improve in doubles play, but we are still working on the combos as far as chemistry,” head coach Jose Ruelas noted. “With two scrimmages under our belt, we got a little taste of what is ahead of us.”
” Editor’s note: Information on La Jolla Country Day School was not made available prior to press time.