Murphy second in Patriot League tennis tournament

Bonsall High School junior Garret Murphy placed second in the Patriot League tennis tournament May 17 at Woodland Park in San Marcos.

Murphy reached the boys singles final before losing to Dominic Smith of Horizon Prep. Murphy placed high enough to earn a berth in the CIF tournament as did Bonsall senior Dakota Thompson.

Normally girls tennis is a fall sport and boys tennis is a spring sport. The coronavirus shutdown compressed the 2020-21 CIF seasons, and boys and girls tennis were combined including formal mixed doubles sets for the first time in San Diego Section history.

This year the Patriot League for tennis consisted of Bonsall, Horizon Prep, High Tech High North County, and Southern California Yeshiva. Bonsall and Horizon Prep both posted 5-1 league records and split their league matches against each other, but Horizon Prep won more sets in head-to-head competition and was the official league team champion.

The Patriot League did not limit the number of entries a school could have in a division at the league tournament. "We were not in a situation where we needed to limit it because all the teams were already so small," said Bonsall coach Eric Hendy.

Hendy took over as Bonsall's coach with a week remaining in the regular season after Mark Roback moved to South Carolina along with his two sons who had been on the Legionnaires' tennis team. The departure of Jeffrey and Andrew Roback left the Legionnaires with six boys and four girls on the team.

Six of those Bonsall players opted against being in the league tournament. "I left it up to them and their families," Hendy said. "Some of them said they'd be interested in entering next year."

Bonsall sophomore Lindsey Richards was interested in competing this year but was nursing an injury. Murphy and Thompson were joined by junior Jack Gates and senior Henrik Nylund.

The league tournament had no boys doubles or mixed doubles entries. Bonsall had four of the seven boys singles players. Four girls singles players and three girls doubles tandems also participated.

The limited number of matches allowed the tournament to be played in one day. The matches were a single set with the first player or doubles team to win eight games prevailing. The girls singles final required the champion to win two sets, and the boys had that option but chose the single-set format. "The boys were tired. It had been a long day," Hendy said.

As the top seed, Dominic Smith of Horizon Prep received the first-round bye. Murphy was seeded second, and the draw pitted Murphy and Thompson against each other in the first round. Murphy won that 8-4 match.

Gates and Nylund lost in the first round. "They were excited just to be able to play some tennis and now at a tournament level," Hendy said. "Even with the losses they were still happy to be playing."

Oliver Scofield of Horizon Prep was Murphy's semifinal opponent. Murphy advanced to the championship match with an 8-5 victory.

Not only was Smith the higher-seeded player in the final, but his first-round bye meant that the championship match was only his second match of the day while Murphy was playing his third match. Smith won the league championship by an 8-2 score.

Murphy played doubles in the 2019 Patriot League tournament and was defeated in the semifinals.

"We're all proud of him, but more importantly about his leadership," Hendy said.

Hendy cited Murphy's character and attitude as well as his on-court skill.

Each league is allowed to send five players in each event to the CIF tournament. All semifinalists qualified for the CIF tournament, and a backdraw was held to determine the fifth-place league player who would continue his season at the CIF competition.

Gates was the highest-seeded player among those in the backdraw and received a first-round bye. Thompson obtained an 8-2 victory over Nylund in the initial backdraw match and won the fifth-place match against Gates by an 8-4 margin.