It was a long and hot day for Lompoc junior Alex Jensen at the Los Padres League tournament held on Friday afternoon at Allan Hancock College and the Minami Center.

When it was all said and done, Jensen had a new title - LPL singles champion. Erasing some ghosts that have haunted him this season, Jensen disposed of St. Joseph's Jake Eszes in the semi-finals, then outlasted league MVP Juan Ferrer of Santa Ynez in the championship final.

In the semis and the finals in both doubles and singles, opponents played two full sets. If it was tied at one set each, they then played a tie-breaker. Jensen defeated Ferrer 5-7, 6-4, (7-0).

In the doubles finals Miles Seemann and Curtis Cole from Santa Ynez defeated Kji Hamill and Samuel Orozco of St. Joseph 6-0, 6-2.

Jensen, who is coached at Lompoc by his mother Loretta, was able to exact a bit of payback on both Eszes and Ferrer after he had fallen both times he played each one in league play. It was also Ferrer who defeated Jensen last year in the league final in a tie-break 6-4, 0-6, (7-3) when they were both sophomores.

“It feels awesome,” Jensen said after the win. “I probably played my best tennis ever today.”

The difference this year was that Jensen knew his opponent better.

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“I was able to figure out his game a little bit,” explained Jensen. “Last year he was new and surprised me - this time I knew how to read him better.”

St. Joseph coach Patrick Ortiz paid Jensen a compliment in how he played after defeating Eszes 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

“Both times Jake played him before, Alex wasn't very consistent - a little bit off his game,” Ortiz said. “But today Alex came in and put it all together. Alex deserved to be in the final.”

Santa Ynez coach Larry Popkin saw a close match coming.

“They both played well all day,” he said about Ferrer and Jensen. “Alex has been coming on the last part of the year, so it wasn't any surprise at all.

What was the difference?

“I believe it was Alex - he played Juan a tiny bit smarter today,” Popkin said. “And for Juan there were more unforced errors than I've seen him make. Particularly in the tie-break, Alex played well, he didn't.”

Jensen played a little different then he had during the regular season.

“I approached his backhand a lot because he always hit the slice, so I would come up and get an easy volley,” Jensen said. “I tried to change it up and be aggressive and my serve was on today.”

Jensen's coach like what she saw on the day.

“He's been anticipating this day all year,” Loretta Jensen said about Alex. “This is the best I've ever seen him play. It must of been the fetuccini alfredo last night.”

In doubles Seemann and Cole rolled through the day just like they did in the regular season. The duo, Cole a junior and Seemann a freshman, were undefeated in league and were unstoppable in the tournament.

After sweeping through the first round 6-0 over Steve Rodriguez and Luciano Luu of Santa Maria, they breezed through the quarter-finals over Lompoc's Kyle Thumm and Marco Pasallo 6-0. In the semi-finals they faced Cole Upton and Dane Eckert from Morro Bay and won 6-1, 6-2.

After Kji Hamill and Samuel Orozco from St. Joseph struggled through the semis with Cabrillo's Ryan Anderson and Andrew Shewell 3-6, 6-2, (7-4), they were defeated by Seemann and Cole 6-0, 6-2 for the championship.

“It's an unbelievably good combination,” Popkin said about his doubles champs. “You have a junior and a freshman and they complemented each other all year.

“Miles is an amazing ninth grader - he's very mature. Curtis is just a cool 11th grader that keeps Miles cool. The type of game they play is very consistent.”

Ortiz saw what he expected from the Santa Ynez team.

“The Santa Ynez teams always give us trouble because they take the ball so early in the court,” he said. “That allows them to get to the net and hit the volley down. Miles and Cole were on top of us all year and they did it again today.”

As far as the rest of the tournament, there were not any huge surprises.

“The tournament went about the same as the season,” Ortiz explained. “The top eight seeds pretty much did what we expected them to do.

There were almost a couple of upsets by the Cabrillo doubles teams.

“Both of our doubles teams played fantastic,” Cabrillo coach Dan Troup said. “We were a point away from having both our teams in the semi-finals and Anderson and Shewell were a tie-breaker away from the finals.”

After winning their first round set 6-2, Arjun Ayyar and Jordan Daniels were one game away from winning their quarterfinal set against Cole Upton and Dane Eckert of Morro Bay, but fell 7-6 (8-6). Anderson and Shewell won the first round 6-3 then beat Cory Zleisy and Johnny Lazaro of Santa Maria 6-3 to set up a semi-final against Hamill and Orozco.

They took the first set 6-3, before the St. Joseph team bounced back to win the second 6-2. Hamill and Orozco earned a spot in the finals with a 7-4 tie-breaker win.

“We had a good day in doubles,” Troup said.

Upton and Eckert defeated Anderson and Shewell in a third place match 6-0, while Eszes beat Daniel Borcherding of Santa Maria in the singles third place match. The finalists both qualify for the CIF individual tournament and the third place finishers would go if one of the top two cannot.

All-League Tennis Team Announced

Before play began at the LPL tennis tournament, the coaches announced the All-league team.

Ferrer was named the singles most Valuable player after going undefeated in league play. First-team singles players were Eszes, Jensen and Daniel Borcherding (Santa Maria).

Second-team players were Joseph Fisher-Ortiz (St. Joseph), Evan Ineman (Santa Ynez) and Rafael Fereria (St. Joseph).

Junior Curtis Cole and freshman Miles Seemann of Santa Ynez were also undefeated in doubles play and were named the MVP double team.

First team doubles teams were Kji Hamill and Samuel Orozco (St. Joseph), Brandon Mann and Austin White (Santa Ynez) and Broderick Cooper and James Xing (St. Joseph).

Second teamers were Eric Okerblom and Brian Turton (St. Joseph), Jackson Jewett and Cody DeLunas (Santa Ynez) and Andrew Shewell and Ryan Anderson (Cabrillo).

Earning honorable mention were Mason Van Valin (Santa Ynez), Erik Wang (Cabrillo), Cory Zleisy (Santa Maria), Anthony Wong (Lompoc), Jeff Eisemann (Templeton) and Mike Ion (Morro Bay).

May 3, 2008