Bronco tennis team wins CIF crown

To put things in perspective, the last time that a Rancho Bernardo boys tennis squad won a CIF section title, most of the seniors on the current team were likely toddlers, and it’s possible that some of the members of the team weren’t even born.

In fact, perhaps the most telling sign of how long it has been since the Broncos put up a CIF section banner in their gym was the fact that back in 1994, Torrey Pines was playing in a lower division, and had yet to establish itself as the most dominant Division I team in the county.

So in a way, it was a bit poetic that when the Broncos won the CIF crown last Friday, their foe was none other than Torrey Pines, the team that has 11 of the last 15 Division I section crowns.

The Broncos, who were runners-up to Torrey Pines last year, won a 10-8 victory over the Falcons at the Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma.

The win was an appropriate end for what has proven to be the ideal season for RB tennis, said Coach Mike Parrinello.

The squad finished undefeated in the Palomar League and defeated Torrey Pines three times, once in a nonleague match and another times at a doubles tournament. But going into the game, Parrinello said, he know it would be close.

“We talked all week about being mentally tough, because they are very smart players and they’re going to fight for every point,” Parrinello said.

The game was tied 6-6 going into the last round, and Parrinello said he pulled his doubles teams aside and told them that if they wanted to win they would have to play more aggressively.

Senior Sean Moazezi was one of the last Bronco players to find out about his team’s victory, as he was in the middle of a doubles match when the Broncos secured the win.

As the match ended and he celebrated, he struggled to find the right words to put the occasion into perspective.

“This is all I wanted for my senior year,” he said. “It means so much to me because it’s something that I can look back upon. It’s all I wanted, and I can’t really describe all that it means.”

Captain Cameron Bernhardt said the game was so close, he wondered at one point whether it would be tied and be decided on points, but he said it was reassuring to the team come together and pull of a victory.

He noted that even though the teams had met on the courts before, both squads were missing key players on those occasions, which made the results of the final game all but certain.

“They had a different team, but we were a different team too,” Bernhardt said. “We just kept getting stronger.

Captain Gio Valdez said he’s excited to be part of the team, and noted that the team has a lot left to show, since it’s only graduating three seniors and should return many of its players next year.

The team championship was only the beginning of the end.

This week would mark the beginning of the Palomar League’s individual final, which will be followed by the CIF individual championships, which begin on Monday, May 24 and conclude on Friday, May 28.

Rancho Bernardo, which was the Division I tournament’s top seed, defeated Carlsbad and La Costa Canyon on their way to the crown.

To get to the final, Torrey Pines had to defeat Rancho Buena Vista and the Poway High School Titans.

Poway, which finished its regular season 12-6 and 8-2 in the Palomar League, lost 11-7 to Torrey during a semifinal match.

Meanwhile, in the Division II finals, Westview High School won the section by defeating Point Loma 11-7.

This was the Wolverines’ second championship, their first taking place in 2007.

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Posted by unestidstwern on May 20 2010. Filed under Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry