Garden Grove Finally Lives Up to Billing

Kevin Starnes, Garden Grove boys’ tennis coach, realized he could only use the inexperience excuse for so long. After three consecutive Garden Grove League championships, Starnes knew it was time to win a playoff match.

“We’ve been the No. 1 seed coming out of our league the last three years, so we’re expected to win,” Starnes said.

On Tuesday, the Argonauts finally lived up to expectations, but they didn’t do it easily. Garden Grove defeated El Dorado, 10-8, in a Southern Section Division II first-round match at Garden Grove after being tied at eight with two matches unfinished.

After leading, 7-5, entering the third round, Garden Grove dropped three of the first four sets in the third round. But just when the tension started to build, Garden Grove’s No. 1 singles player, Andro Ignacio, recovered from a 3-1 deficit to beat El Dorado freshman Michael Peng, 6-4.

A few seconds later it became official when Garden Grove’s No. 2 doubles team of Nan Tran and Bryan Tran rebounded from a 4-3 deficit against El Dorado’s No. 3 team of Bill Burger and Dean Vu to win, 6-4.

“I was pretty confident, but in the back of my mind I was thinking back to the last couple years,” Starnes said. “The last two years in CIF weren’t too good. But doubles is our strength and they proved that again today.”

Garden Grove’s doubles teams won seven of nine sets. Tran and Tran won three, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4, and Alex Iha and Huy Le and Hien Ngo and Jason Choi took two of three.

“We’ve played so many tough matches against so many good teams,” Starnes said. “I think that those experiences helped us. We rose to another level this time instead of crumbling.”

The Argonauts (18-3) rose to that level without their No. 2 singles player, Tuan Nguyen, who became ineligible because of grades three weeks ago.

“We talked about losing Tuan a few weeks ago but his name did not come up this week,” Starnes said. “I learned a long time ago that you just have to go with what you’ve got.”

El Dorado (17-5), which tied Loara for the Empire League title, got two sets from Peng, the league singles champion, and two from Nos. 1 and 3 singles players Ali Kermani and John Babcock.

Garden Grove will play Aliso Niguel, the second-place team from the Pacific Coast League, Thursday at an undetermined site.