Valhalla High School fielded its 50th boys varsity tennis team this year. Number of section championships coming into the season: none.
On a cool Saturday afternoon at the Lake Murray Tennis Club, that drought came to an end. In a would-it-ever-end match that lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes, the Norsemen beat Mater Dei Catholic 10-8 to secure the Division 2 title.
No one enjoyed the history-setting moment more than Valhalla’s 66-year-old head coach, Don Ackerly, who’s in his 31st season. He has coached the girls team for 30 years.
Counting boys and girls, the victory against Mater Dei was his 704th match win at Valhalla.
“It’s pretty awesome to finally win a division title,” said Ackerly. “But by the same token, there are four division champions. There’s no question the Open Division is the strongest, but I think it’s just awesome that in our division, we were able to come out on top.”
Before Saturday, Valhalla had lost two championship matches, both in Division 2.
“I thought we won (CIF) a couple of times,” said freshman Aiden Toma. “This is special. It involved a lot of team work. We put a lot of effort into practices. And in the end, it obviously paid off.”
Team tennis features three singles players and three doubles teams. Singles was the key to Valhalla’s win. Toma, Isaiah Kasawa and Emilio Posadas each won two sets.
The doubles team of Evan Bakayou and Gus Jacques also won two sets.
For Mater Dei Catholic, the defending D2 champ, Santiago Resendez won all three singles sets.
Valhalla also benefitted from a high school spring tradition: the prom. Two Mater Dei players left the match early to go to the prom. A third, Roberto Valdez, played all three of his matches, showered at the club, dressed in a suit, then hustled off to prom.
“That,” said Mater Dei coach Jose Oropeza, “is an example of a team player.”
Division 1
No school has won more boys tennis titles than La Jolla High School. The Vikings added to their record total Saturday, defeating Patrick Henry 10-8.
The win earned the Vikings their 41st section championship and second straight in Division 1.
La Jolla’s win was secured by its singles players, who swept all nine matches. Leo Thieler and Joe Sammartino both lost just two games. Jacob Chorny won 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.
“That’s been the strength of our team the whole year,” said La Jolla coach Jack Kruger, who played on La Jolla’s 1977 CIF championship team and later professionally, including at Wimbledon.
“They had to put it all together in this match because they have a really tough number one player (Oliver Kuber). They stepped up. We had a plan, executed it and played beautifully.”
As for winning back-to-back titles, Kruger said, “It hasn’t sunk in, but it feels fantastic. We always want to keep on striving to get better. That’s our motto and the kids bought in.”
The two Western League teams split two matches during the regular season, La Jolla winning 9-9, 73 games to 71, and Henry taking the rematch 10-8.
Patrick Henry was trying to win its first section championship. The Patriots have finished second in 1972, ’92, 2015 and this year.
Division 3
The championship match between Valley Center and Christian was rescheduled to noon May 10 at the Balboa Tennis Club because of a conflict at Canyon Crest Academy.
