Harrison and Lenaway win Valley League doubles championship

Fallbrook High School seniors Declan Harrison and Riley Lenaway won the Valley League doubles championship at the league tennis tournament May 8-10 at San Pasqual High School.

For the second consecutive year, Harrison and Lenaway beat Valley Center brothers Joseph and Jake Stehly in the final, although this year Harrison and Lenaway required three sets to win the championship match.

"Didn't play all too well in the second set, but came back," Harrison said. "Third set we kind of figured out what we needed to be doing."

The singles portion of the league tournament included Fallbrook junior Brett Johnson reaching the final before Ramona junior Brandan Ruland repeated his league championship.

The league tournament consisted of 20 singles players and 19 doubles tandems. The top eight seeds in each division received first-round byes. Lenaway and Harrison had the No. 1 seed while the Stehly brothers were seeded second. Two other Fallbrook teams received seeds and first-round byes: senior Max Alperstein and junior Stephen Shedd were seeded sixth, while seniors Casey Eich and Jayson Hanlon had the seventh seed.

The lack of enough players for a full 24-team bracket also gave a first-round bye to Fallbrook sophomores Richard Herrera and Noah Potraz, and with none of the other four Valley League teams having enough depth to field five doubles teams, Fallbrook was also represented by sophomore Brian Medina and freshman Anthony Vasquez, who lost a first-round match to Escondido juniors Kevin Duong and Austin Ngo. Duong and Ngo won the first set 6-1, and the second set was tied at six games apiece to trigger a tiebreaking game to seven points. Duong and Ngo captured a 7-5 victory in the tiebreaking game to win the set and match.

Eich and Hanlon then eliminated Duong and Ngo in a 6-2, 6-1 match. That advanced Eich and Hanlon to the quarterfinal against the Stehly brothers, who prevailed in 6-0 and 6-1 sets.

Herrera and Potraz opened and closed league play against the fourth-seeded San Pasqual tandem of seniors Sean Healy and Hieu Tran, who won a pair of 6-1 sets against the Fallbrook players.

Alperstein and Shedd began play with a three-set victory over the Valley Center team of senior Chris Conaway and junior A.J. Zamora. Alperstein and Shedd obtained a 6-3 victory in the first set, but the Valley Center partners evened the match with a 6-4 triumph. Alperstein and Shedd prevailed in the 6-3 third set to advance to the quarterfinals, where they faced the third-seeded San Pasqual team of senior Minh Kim and junior Zach Esselman. A 6-2, 6-0 match advanced Kim and Esselman to the semifinals while relegating Alperstein and Shedd to the battle for fifth place.

Because five Valley League singles players and five doubles teams qualified for the CIF tournament, the quarterfinals losers played two rounds for firth place. In the first of those rounds, Eich and Hanlon faced Alperstein and Shedd.

"I just tried to stay away from that match and let them play," said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway. "I think the kids kind of enjoyed playing their teammates."

Eich and Hanlon defeated Alperstein and Shedd in 6-3 and 6-4 sets. The fifth-seeded team of Valley Center juniors Alec Archipov and Robert Parsons also advanced to the fifth-place match and earned the final CIF tournament berth with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Eich and Hanlon.

"I have no qualms about the way that shook out," Lenaway said of Eich and Hanlon falling short in the CIF qualifying match. "The guys that beat them deserve to be there."

Harrison and Riley Lenaway won 6-0, 6-0 matches in the round of 16 against Valley Center seniors Dayton Dangel and Mark Villalobos, in the quarterfinals against the San Pasqual team of sophomores Mykal Parzanese and Trevor Van Honten, and in the semifinals against Tran and Healy. That placed the Fallbrook seniors in the finals against the Stehly brothers, who had defeated Kim and Esselman in the other doubles semifinal.

"We got a really good match in the finals," Lenaway said.

Harrison and Lenaway began the final with a 6-3 victory over the Stehly brothers, who came back in the second set with a 6-4 triumph.

"They had a little lapse in concentration in the second set," Bill Lenaway said.

Harrison and Riley Lenaway won the deciding set by a 6-0 score.

"They came through, just pounded them," Bill Lenaway said.

"It was nice to take care of the ones we should have," Riley Lenaway said.

Riley Lenaway believes that the 6-0 score in the final set indicates Harrison and Lenaway's true ability. "It was good to have a third set that kind of showed that," Lenaway said.

This year Joseph Stehly is a senior and Jake Stehly is a sophomore. Last year Harrison and Lenaway won 6-4 and 7-5 sets over the Stehly brothers.

"It was nice to defend our title two years in a row," Lenaway said.

The league championship is actually the third for Lenaway. Ruland has not lost a league set during his high school career, but he broke his finger in a non-tennis accident prior to the 2015 league tournament and Lenaway was that year's league singles champion.

Although Lenaway was Fallbrook's No. 1 singles player both in 2016 and 2017 and Harrison was the Warriors' No. 2 singles competitor both last year and this year, they were paired as a doubles team for the league tournament as juniors and seniors to provide a better opportunity for a league championship.

Johnson was Fallbrook's No. 3 singles player during the dual meet portion of the season. He was seeded second in the league tournament and was the only Fallbrook singles player to receive a seed, although a first-round bye was also given to senior Erik Garcia.

The two Fallbrook singles players who had first-round matches both won those competitions. Fallbrook senior Jimmy Johnson won a pair of 6-0 sets against Ramona senior Chris Murguia. Fallbrook sophomore Devin Martinko was victorious in 6-0 and 6-2 sets against Valley Center sophomore Alex Stephens.

Jimmy Johnson faced fifth-seeded Lukas Chalker, a San Pasqual freshman, in the round of 16. The first set was tied at six games apiece before Chalker won the 7-2 tiebreaking game. Chalker then eliminated Johnson with a 6-4 victory in the second set.

Martinko followed his first-round victory by winning a three-set match against sixth-seeded Escondido sophomore Milan Bujosevic. Martinko opened the match with a 6-2 triumph, Bujosevic won the 6-1 second set, and Martinko prevailed in the 6-3 third set. Martinko faced third-seeded Andrew Doan of San Pasqual in the quarterfinal, and Doan captured 6-0 and 6-2 sets. Martinko and Valley Center sophomore Johnathon Henderson were the only unseeded players to reach the quarterfinals.

Garcia's only match of the tournament was a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Ruland.

All three of the matches in the quest for fifth place went to three sets. Chalker lost to Henderson in the first set but won a 6-0 second set, and after the first 12 games of the third set were split evenly, Chalker won the tiebreaker to advance to the fifth-place match. Martinko initially faced the seventh seed, San Pasqual junior Mario Askebron, and defeated his second seeded opponent of the tournament with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory.

Martinko spent the dual league portion of the season on Fallbrook's junior varsity team and did not play any varsity matches other than the league tournament.

"He just got out there and was steady and listened," Bill Lenaway said.

Chalker defeated Martinko by a 6-2 score in the first set of the fifth-place match. Martinko responded with a 6-4 triumph in the second set. Chalker then won all six games of the third set to advance to the CIF tournament.

The Martinko family will be moving to San Antonio after the school year concludes, so Martinko will not play for the Warriors next year.

Brett Johnson's first match was in the quarterfinals. The scheduled match following Johnson's first-round bye was settled off the court when Ramona senior Dagan Johnson defaulted. Brett Johnson defeated Askebron in a 6-0, 6-2 quarterfinal and won a pair of 6-2 sets against Doan in the semifinal.

Ruland had lost only two games combined in his three 2017 league tournament matches prior to the final. Johnson won two games in each set in Ruland's 6-2, 6-2 victory.

"Brett did a good job," said Bill Lenaway. "He's been getting better and better every year."