Josie Collier
Staff Writer
A sweet senior night victory for the Mustangs as they defeated local rival, Redondo Union High School, in a home game that secured their 1st place spot in Bay League.
The Mustangs defeated the Seahawks 13-5, on Thursday, Apr. 19. Senior Evan Fortier and doubles pairs, including senior Shant Samuelian and sophomore Tim Dzhurinskiy, were the top performers for winning all of their sets.
“One thing that we could work on is finding a way to improve in the wind,” junior Nick Darrow said. “As today was windy and we may have had some troubles adjusting early on.”
The Mustangs were off to a strong start after the first sets were played. Senior Evan Fortier won his first set 6-4 and junior Matthew Poh won his first set 6-0. On the doubles side, all of the duos won their first set putting Mira Costa at a strong 5-1 lead over Redondo.
“Singles is way more mentally and physically tough,” Dzhurinskiy said. “You have to cover way more court when you are playing.”
Poh lost his second singles set 2-6, but later went on to win his third set 7-5 after an intense tiebreaker against Redondo’s #1 seed. Keeping the winning streak alive, Fortier won his last two sets 6-0 and 6-4 which kept the Mustangs in the lead.
“Our three great singles players were able to get some big wins against Redondo’s top two singles players who are some of the best in the state,” junior Nick Darrow said.
Samuelian and Dzhurinskiy had phenomenal performances earning them a huge sweep across the board winning 6-3, 6-1, and 6-0. The #2 seeded doubles pair, senior Ben Chromanski and freshman Julien Lilla, also found success and won two sets, 6-1 and 6-0.
“I prefer to play doubles because of the camaraderie I have built with my partner,” Chromanski said.
The #3 seeded doubles pair, including seniors Ron Mizutani and Jon Scalabrini, played their last home game at Costa and came out on top winning two of their sets, 6-1 and 6-2. The numerous wins by Costa ultimately led them to defeat Redondo and secure the #1 spot in Bay League.
“We can improve on keeping a high level on energy through all 3 rounds, no matter what the score is,” Chromanski said.
The Mustangs are currently 7-1 overall and 6-1 in Bay League. For their next match, Costa will head over to Inglewood High School on Tuesday, Apr. 24 for one of the last Bay League matches of the season.
“Today in the match we were able to do a great job pulling all of our doubles together and get some crucial wins,” Darrow said.
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