First-round wins by Prep’s No.1 doubles team John Lee and David Chou, No. 2 team of Reza Ghesseri and Krishan Suthurshana and No. 3 team of John Kim and Albert Lee, combined with a first-round singles sweep, got the Rebels off to a six-set lead that set the tone for the afternoon.
John Lee and Chou went 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, Ghesseri and Suthurshana went 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, and Kim and Albert Lee won, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.
Singles was more of a mixed bag, with junior No. 1 Alex Wood’s sweep standing as the highlight.
Wood opened his day with a tough match against Oakwood No. 1 Marcus Hunter.
Leading, 5-2, at one point, Wood lost control of the match, allowing Hunter to win four straight games to take a 6-5 lead.
But Wood rallied to force a tiebreaker and prevailed, 7-3.
He went on to enjoy a much easier afternoon from there on with 6-2 and 6-1 victories over No. 2 Sam Buckland and No. 3 Oliver Silverton-Peel, respectively.
“I just started coming to the net a lot,” Wood said of his turnaround against Hunter. “Luckily, I won that one and then started playing a lot better. The next two sets were a lot easier.”
Prep No. 2 singles Kent Byun posted 6-2 and 6-0 wins and No. 3 Eric Kazangian notched a 6-2 win.
“[Oakwood’s singles] were stronger than Burbank’s singles,” said Catano, whose Rebels will host Milken Community in another nonleague match at Scholl Canyon at 3:15 p.m. today. “They gave us more of a challenge.”
Get in touch GABRIEL RIZK covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3226 or at gabriel.rizk@latimes.com.
