Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - BrentwoodPress_05.02.08 - Index

2B | THEPRESS.NET SPORTS MAY 2, 2008
East County shines at BVAL tourney
by Avi Burk
Staff Writer
The Deer Valley, Heritage and Freedom
boys tennis teams were each represented
on the fi nal day of the Bay Valley Athletic
League tournament. And although none
of those representatives took home a league
title, each competed at a praiseworthy level.
Deer Valley standout David Branson,
a junior who was seeded No. 2 coming into
the tournament, advanced all the way to the
championship match before bowing out in
straight sets to De La Salle’s Chris Kipouras,
the tournament’s top-seeded player and
one of the top-rated players in all of California,
6-2, 6-1.
“It’s incredibly exciting to play for a
BVAL championship,” said Branson. “I’m
just going to use this as momentum and
go into next year and build on that and do
even better.”
Branson’s unorthodox serve might not
strike fear in the hearts of his opponents,
and he doesn’t put the kind of blistering
heat on his forehand that makes them
tremble. But he gets to balls that other players
simply don’t get to, and he gets to them
in position to return well-placed shots that
force his opponents to move their feet and
cover the entire court, making him an exceptionally
dangerous foe.
Dylan Hoffl ander and Cameron Curran,
the top Heritage doubles team, also
Photo by Avi Burk
Freedom’s Barry Rose, a senior, drills a shot back over the net in Tuesday’s
doubles semifi nals.
came into the tournament with a No. 2 seed
and high expectations, and the pair more
than lived up to the hype. Hoffl ander and
Curran, both juniors, also advanced to the
championship match, but were bounced
by De La Salle’s No. 1 doubles pairing of
Robbie Brueheim and Sam Benevidez in
straight sets, 6-0, 6-2.
On their way to the title match,
Hoffl ander and Curran played an epic
match against Deer Valley’s top doubles
team, Justin Kasad and Waquar Arshad.
Hoffl ander and Curran dominated the fi rst
set 6-3, then dropped the second set 5-7 before
regaining form and scoring a 6-4 win in
the fi nal set to advance, becoming the fi rst
Heritage boys tennis representative to compete
for a league title.
“It feels pretty good,” Curran said of
advancing to the doubles fi nal. “People
keep telling us, ‘You’re going to go far –
you’re only juniors.’ Next year we’ll be even
better. Me and Dylan really appreciate all
the support of our teammates and I think it
actually helps us (on the court) too – it kind
of psychs out the opposition and gives us
an advantage.”
Heritage head coach Diane Molsberry
added a little more perspective, explaining
that the duo had never played tennis prior
to last season, and that they’d reached the
pinnacle of league tournament play relying
mostly on their excellent on-court communication,
raw athleticism and eagerness to
improve.
“This is huge,” said Molsberry. “This
is only our third year as a high school and
only our second year of varsity competition,
so we’re real pleased, regardless of the
outcome of the championship game. Last
year we worked on their strokes. This year
we started working on their strategy, and
they’ve come so far. In my mind we’ve already
won – the championship doesn’t really
matter.”
The newly formed Freedom doubles
pairing of Bob Harris and Barry Rose advanced
to the semifi nals before falling to
Brueheim and Benevidez. Harris, a junior,
had competed primarily as a singles player
before deciding to turn his attention to
winning a doubles title a week prior to the
league tournament.
Harris and Rose gave the eventual
champs a serious run for their money, dropping
the fi rst set 4-6, then bouncing back to
win the second set 6-3, only to falter in the
fi nal set and fall 4-6.
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