With the Eastern League title already secured, the Point Loma High School (PLHS) boys’ tennis team is vying for its third straight CIF Division II team title beginning next week. The first matches of the team tournament will be played at noon May 11 at a site being determined today at a seeding meeting. The finals are set for May 14 at Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma beginning at noon. The Pointers aced rival Patrick Henry on April 20 in a decisive 13-5 victory to earn another league banner for the PLHS gym wall. That win brought the team’s league record to 11-0 with a 13-2 overall mark. Westview and Cathedral Catholic are the only blemishes on the Pointers’ record. Even though former top player Zach Leslie, who won two consecutive singles’ titles, now swings his racquet at Wake Forest University, coach Mark Truver and team members feel they have the talent to three-peat in Division II. This year’s top singles player is senior Corey Smith, ranked 45th in the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA) Under 18 rankings. He recently accepted a tennis scholarship offer from the Univerity of Southern California. “We’ve got a young team, but we’re motivated and everybody tries hard,” Smith said. Also optimistic is top doubles player Axel Cramer, a junior. “This year our team has a lot of new players,” Cramer said, “but we have good makeup, so I think we will have a good chance in the upcoming CIF tournaments.” Cramer recently competed in the 110th annual Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament. He is also ranked in SCTA Under 16 rankings and has the highest match-winning percentage on the Pointer team. Another SCTA-ranked player on the team is freshman Dominic Gareri, also listed on the Under 16 ladder. Other team members include senior Nathaniel Johnson and juniors Alec De Ryckere, Stephen Devito, Kevin Davies and Juan Pablo Quinonez-Weston. The underclassmen are made up of sophomores Paras Madan and Sab Redzepovic, and freshmen Kasey Dring, Avery Cramer, Aaron Patch and Forrest Young. Following the team tourney will be the Eastern League singles and doubles finals at Mira Mesa High School from May 18-21. The season concludes with the CIF individual tournament, which takes place at noon May 24 at Barnes Tennis Center.
