Tennis Notebook: San Marino Adjusts to Life in Top Division

Winning CIF titles in tennis is something that has been customary at San Marino for decades. The Titans were always amongst the top lower division teams in the Southern Section.

If the Titans are to win this season, they will have a harder path as they have been moved up to Division 1 for the CIF-SS playoffs. They currently are ranked No. 9 in Division 1.

Coach John Kuramoto is excited about his group, especially his younger players.

“We have so many freshmen on the team this year,” Kuramoto said. “We feel like this team has responded well (against tough competition).”

San Marino (5-4, 3-0 in the Rio Hondo League) has already played some of the top programs in Southern California.

The Titans losses have come at the hands of top-ranked University of Irvine, No. 3 Palos Verdes, No. 4 Harvard-Westlake and No. 6 Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The Titans defeated Temple City 13-5 in a league match Wednesday.

Senior Johnny Wang, who is ranked No. 18 in the Southern California Tennis Association boys’ 18-and-under division, is the Titans No. 1 singles player.

Wang is headed to Carnegie Mellon University next season. He won his three sets 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 Wednesday, which included a 6-1 win over Lestter Yeh, ranked No. 24 in the SCTA boys’ 16-and-under rankings.

Sophomore James Wade, ranked No. 59 in the SCTA U-16 rankings, is San Marino’s No. 2 singles player. He swept his three matches 6-0, 6-3, 6-1 against Temple City.

Senior Kevin Yen rounds out the Titans singles players.

San Marino has three freshmen in its three doubles teams, including the pair of Robert Carter and Nicholas Splichal, who play in the number one role. The duo went 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 against Temple City.

Arcadia, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 poll, improved to 11-0 on Tuesday with a 10-8 win over Burroughs in a Pacific League match.

The Apaches are led by Travis Tu, who is ranked No. 28 in the SCTA boys’ 16-and-under rankings.

La Cañada has begun the season 6-3 overall and 2-1 in the Rio Hondo League under veteran coach Will Moravec. The Spartans have done quite well considering they lost five players to graduation as well as basketball star Matt Faber who decided not to play after a long season on the basketball court.

Sophomore Joshua Kim, who is ranked No. 52 in the SCTA boys’ 16-and-under rankings, is the Spartans’ top player.

The Spartans play Pasadena Poly on Thursday.

St. Francis has started the year 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the tough Mission League.

Coach Ron Zambrano’s side is led by junior John Kazanjian and Christopher Grosuevor in singles and Greg Pak and Daniel Gong in doubles.

The Golden Knights recently lost to Loyola of Los Angeles 10-8. Zambrano said his team is hoping to get the third automatic playoff spot out of the Mission League. If not, he said his team hopes it can get an at-large berth into the CIF-SS playoffs provided the Golden Knights have a winning record.

Next week we will know which players have been chosen to represent their schools in the prestigious Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament.

The 109th edition of the event is slated for late April and includes a CIF high school event, as well as a junior tournament in which players participate without their high school uniforms.

Jim Riggio's "Boys Tennis Notebook" will appear weekly on all Patch sites in the San Gabriel Valley area.