Legionnaires outmatched in CIF tennis tournament

Two Bonsall High School tennis players competed in the CIF individual tournament May 24 through June 10 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, but for senior Dakota Thompson and junior Garret Murphy, their tournament play ended May 24 with first-round boys singles losses.

"I'm happy they got to the tournament, proud of their leadership in the season," said Bonsall coach Eric Hendy.

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. Murphy placed second in the Patriot League tournament May 17 at Woodland Park in San Marcos, reaching the boys singles final before losing in the championship match. He played Thompson in the first round, and the 8-4 one-set match sent Thompson to the backdraw. Thompson won his two backdraw matches to take fifth place and earn the final CIF tournament berth.

"Dakota was not a tennis player and joined the team as a rookie in his senior year," Hendy said.

Thompson played soccer in previous seasons, but this year Bonsall High School did not have a soccer team. Murphy has been on the Legionnaires' tennis team since his freshman season in 2019. Two years ago, Murphy and his doubles partner reached the semifinals of the league tournament and qualified for the CIF tournament, where they were eliminated in the first round. The coronavirus outbreak ended the 2020 season early, so there was no league or CIF tournament.

Thompson faced Point Loma senior Thomas Kuruvilla, who has a universal tennis rating of 4. Thompson's UTR is 2. The top four players are given specific seeds, the next four players have unspecified 5-8 seeds, eight players are given unspecified 9-16 seeds, and another four players receive unspecified 17-20 seeds. Murphy faced 17-20 seed Anirudha Rajesh Rao, who was a Torrey Pines freshman with a UTR of 8. Murphy has a UTR of 3.

"In both matches, both of our guys knew going in that their UTRs were much lower," Hendy said.

"They still went in with confidence," Hendy said. "Everybody had just a good positive vibe."

The first three rounds of the tournament utilized one-set matches with the first player to win eight games advancing. Both Bonsall players lost 8-0 sets.

"Even when they lost in the tournament they came off the court smiling and proud of what they did for the season," Hendy said.