Vincent Memorial falls in tennis title match
Special to this Newspaper
SAN DIEGO- A year after winning the CIFSan Diego Section Division III Boys Team Tennis Championship, the Vincent Memorial Catholic High School Scots fell in the Division II title match at the Barnes Tennis Center here on Saturday, April 20th.
Vincent Memorial entered the finals as Division II’s top-seeded team but could not overcome the singles play of third-seeded Mater Dei Catholic Crusaders of Chula Vista, losing by a score of 13-5.
Ironically, the teams had played a non-league match at Southwestern Community College back in early March, a match won by Vincent Memorial by a score of 10-8 in matches so even that a missing player from each side help determine both outcomes.
” They were one man short of all their singles starters in March and then Saturday we were missing one of ours that caused both of us coaches to make line-up changes,” Vincent Memorial coach David Wong said.” In any case, we knew going in it would be tough to beat them twice and we needed to step up our game.”
The main difference on the court would be the play of the singles players.
“Our single had two seniors, Diego Aldridge and Aureliano Cota, and their singles players are two freshmen and a sophomore,” Wong said. “And their improvement from March to the CIF title match was impressive and was the difference in the match.”
The Scots’ only singles point came from the Imperial Valley League individual champion sophomore Jorge Vargas.
“Vargas was the only player to score a singles point and it came on the last set of the day,” Wong said. “We moved him to singles and that broke up a doubles team and that switch had repercussions.”
In doubles play, Vincent Memorial’s number one duo of senior Jacobo Ellias and junior Ricardo Montel playing first doubles won two out of three sets as did the doubles team of Scot juniors Roberto Villicana and Victor Romero.
“For Jacobo and Ricardo, it was their second season together and they set the standard and the other doubles team fell into line,” Wong said.
Wong has put an emphasis on doubles play at Vincent Memorial, who have sometimes relied in the past on overpowering single players.
“Our doubles teams have improved significantly from the past when the players tended to be individual players on a doubles team,” Wong said. “But we have worked on getting them to work together as a team with good results.”
If the names Wong and Ellias appearing together regarding a Vincent Memorial CIF-SDS championship game, seems familiar, it should, because last fall they were the coach and quarterback respectively when the Scots played in the CIF Division V football championship.
For the IVL team champion Scots, the loss has only made the commitment to return next year to the CIF finals the goal.
“This year we had a full squad with 18 on our roster and we are only losing five seniors but have five juniors moving up,” Wong said, noting that in tennis CIF does not designate a teams division until after the season. “So we have a solid core and we plan to compete in our division at the end of the season.”
A return to the finals would appear entirely possible for the Scots as Vincent Memorial defeated the Brawley High Wildcats in 2023 and won a CIF D-II title in 2015, along with a co-ed Covid-13 title in 2021, while also finishing CIF runners-up in 1999.