Downey High School's boys tennis team had a four-and-a-half hour bus ride to the St. Joseph courts Thursday.

The Knights had their own bus - a momentum one. That bus rolled through the first round, slowed in the second, then roared through the third as the Knights downed the Vikings 14-4 in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV Playoffs.

St. Joseph (18-1) took all six first-round sets. The Vikings out-scored the Knights 4-2 in the second round. St. Joseph swept in the third.

Knights doubles player Broderick Cooper said afterward that coach Patrick Ortiz's pep talk to St. Joseph's doubles tandems after the second round worked. The Knights salvaged only half of the six second-round doubles sets.

Cooper said, “Coach knows what he's talking about. I'm a senior, and these four years playing for him have been the best of my life.”

“I just told the kids that it's all mental,” going into the third round, said Ortiz. “Tennis is 90 percent mental.”

Buoyed by St. Joseph's usual strong singles production - the Knights won eight of nine singles sets - and raising their own games, St. Joseph's doubles tandems helped their team move into the second round.

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The Knights play Walnut at 3 p.m. Saturday. A coin flip today will determine the site. Walnut beat Ontario Chaffey 15-3 Thursday.

The Vikings wound up second in the San Gabriel Valley League at 8-4.

Jake Eszes and Brazilian exchange student Rafa Ferreira swept three singles sets each for St. Joseph. Freshman Tyler Chamness won two of his three.

Knights doubles tandems Samuel Orozco and Kji Hamill, Broderick Cooper and James Xing, and Eric Okerblom and Brian Turton all won two of their three sets. They all rebounded with third-round wins after dropping their second-round matches.

St. Joseph won without senior Joseph Fischer Ortiz, who's been a strong number two singles player for the Knights all season. Patrick Ortiz said his son has bronchitis.

Sophomore Jake Eszes, St. Joseph's top singles player, said, “We knew earlier in the week that we would be without Joseph. It's hard - he's been such an asset to the team.

“A freshman, Tyler Chamness, came in for us and really stepped up.” Eszes spoke after he overwhelmed three over-matched opponents. Eszes swept 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

Ortiz moved Ferreira, the Knights' reliable number three player, to number two for the match. Chamness took over the third spot.

Tim Yoon gave the Vikings their first point when he hit a forehand winner down the alley to give himself and partner Jachan Cho a 7-6 (1) win over Cooper and Xing. Ferreira, who's a senior, then watched Abraham Sandoval's forehand sail long to close out Ferreira's 6-1 win that gave the Knights an 8-1 lead.

Downey won the next two doubles sets, then Ortiz gave his doubles tandems a little talk.

Eszes won to clinch a tie, Ferreira prevailed to clinch the win and all three St. Joseph doubles teams improved markedly the last round. Cooper and Xing played the most consistently well of the three Thursday.

“James and I have been together all year,” Cooper said. “It's been going really well for us. We made first team All-League.”

Eszes said, “We're playing well at the right time. Our singles have been strong all year, and our doubles are solid, too. We switched the teams around the last couple of matches, got them back together today and they did really well.”

Ferreira said he is enjoying a new experience.

“It's all club tennis in Brazil,” he commented. “I like playing in the CIF playoffs. Hopefully, we'll go a long way.”

Whitney 13, Lompoc 5

CERRITOS - Whitney's depth proved to be too much for a Lompoc tennis squad coming off an inspiring wild card win.

“Knowing a wild card plays a No. 1 team, we knew it would be a tough match,” Lompoc boys tennis coach Loretta Jensen said. “We knew it'd be tough and a lot of these guys had more experience in the CIF first round. Half of our players had never been there before.”

Lompoc was coming off a tightly contested win over Norwalk 10-8 at Lompoc on Tuesday, which earned the Braves a chance to enter the first round of the Division IV CIF-Southern Section playoffs.

Despite facing the No. 1 team out of the Academy League, Lompoc did get a sweep from Alex Jensen in the 15-3 loss to Whitney on Thursday.

Jensen - the Los Padres League MVP who also swept his three sets against Norwalk on Tuesday - won 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

Against Whitney's No. 1 singles player Joel Kennedy, Jensen fell behind early. Kennedy broke Jensen's serve in the first game, only to watch Lompoc's standout junior respond with his own break in Game 2.

“Alex does start slow,” Loretta Jensen, Alex's mother, said. “He ended up taking control of the match.”

However, elsewhere in singles, Lompoc's No. 1 and 2 players suffered sweeps to Whitney's tough singles lineup - composed of Kennedy and two freshmen.

No. 2 Robert Rodriguez lost 6-2, 6-1, 6-1. No. 3 Anthony Yang lost 6-1, 6-0, 6-1.

“They were a little deeper than we were,” Loretta Jensen said. “They were deeper in singles and doubles. ... After round one we were down 5-1, and we knew we were in a little trouble. We tried to do what we could, but we were a little over our heads.”

In doubles, Lompoc's No. 1 team of Kyle Thumm and Marco Pasallo lost 6-0, 6-0, 6-4. Lompoc's No. 2 team of Joel Martin and Cooper Barrick lost 6-2, 6-0, 6-4. Lompoc's No. 3 team of Oscar Rodriguez and Carlos Diaz dropped their sets 6-0, 7-5, 6-0.

Arroyo Grande 10, Arcadia 8

ARCADIA - The Eagles had one doubles win in this Division II first-rounder, Levi Daniel's and Nick Hollister's. One was enough.

It was enough because Andre Dome, Stefan Mirzaei and Sam Rodgers all swept three singles sets. Mirzaei lost four games. Rodgers lost three. Dome, the best player in the area, didn't lose any.

Daniel and Hollister put their team over the top by beating Roy Yu and Bryan Yung 6-4. Arroyo Grande hosts Claremont at 3 p.m. Saturday. Claremont routed La Quinta 17-1 Thursday.

Swimming

CIF Finals

LONG BEACH - St. Joseph's Maddie Mastrup finished second in the girls 500-yard freestyle at the CIF Southern Section Division IV Finals at the Belmont Plaza Pool.

Mastrup swam 5:11.10. She finished fourth in 2:00.27 in the 200 freestyle.

Teammate Erica Brannon finished third in the 100 butterfly (1:00.05) and 100 backstroke (1:00.48). St. Joseph senior Jeremiah Palmerston placed fifth in the boys 200 individual medley in a personal best 2:01.00. He was eighth in 49.13, another PR, in the 100 freestyle.

Mastrup qualified for the Masters Meet, which takes place next Tuesday at Belmont Plaza. Brannon, St. Joseph coach Jennifer Best said, has a chance to advance. The top two finishers in each of the four divisions, plus swimmers with the next 16 fastest times in each finals event, regardless of division, earn spots in the Masters.

May 9, 2008