Matthews has Peninsula’s number

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — Corona del Mar High’s Fabian Matthews would probably prefer a draw that doesn’t include a match against Jon Kazarian and Tyler Bowman.

“Their game is that they try to get in your head,” Matthews said. “I don’t like playing them.”

Kazarian and Bowman probably don’t like playing against Matthews either. Matthews’ record against them is sparkling.

The trend continued Thursday at Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club, in the boys’ 18 doubles semifinals of the 105th annual Southern California Junior Sectional Championships.

As it always seems to be, the battle was tough, but Matthews and partner Ryan Cheung pulled out a 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-4 victory against Kazarian and Bowman. Matthews and Cheung, the No. 2 seed, advance to the finals, where they’ll play No. 5-seeded Daniel Nguyen and Chris Ho of Santa Barbara High on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Los Cab.

In other action Thursday, No. 4-seeded CdM’s Cierra Gaytan-Leach and partner Jordan Dockendorf of Santa Barbara fell in the girls’ 18 doubles semifinals, 6-2, 6-2, to No. 5-seeded Kaitlyn Christian of Orange and Catherine Isip of Anaheim.

For Matthews, familiarity probably breeds contempt. He won close singles sets against both Bowman and Kazarian in CdM’s CIF Southern Section Division I quarterfinal loss at Peninsula on May 15.

Then, Matthews and partner Dustin Hladek outlasted the Peninsula duo, 7-6, 2-6, 7-5, on May 26 in the CIF Individuals doubles semifinal, on their way to their second straight title.

Thursday, it was a questionable call in the first-set tiebreaker that helped Matthews and Cheung get going. With the tiebreaker tied at 3-3, a Cheung shot appeared to catch the baseline, but Bowman and Kazarian both called the ball out.

The Peninsula team won three straight points after that to take the set, but Matthews and Cheung rallied to take the second set, breaking Bowman and Kazarian a combined four times in the set.

“That was big,” Matthews said. “If we just started hitting everything as hard as we could in the second set, we wouldn’t have won it. We had to keep our cool.”

Matthews was broken at 2-2 in the third set, but he and Cheung immediately broke Kazarian’s serve to level the set again. Then, with Kazarian serving at 4-5, he was broken again to end the match.

“He started looking a little tight again,” Matthews said. “All the volleys were coming in shorter and shorter.”

Cheung, a 16-year-old lefty from Lomita who is in the San Joaquin home-school program in Irvine, has never played with Matthews before. They teamed up because both train at the Advantage Tennis Academy, also in Irvine.

“Our games match each other,” Cheung said. “It was kind of confusing at first, but we got used to it. We’re playing really good now.”

Matthews is also still alive in the singles draw, where he has a Round of 32 boys’ 18s match today at 2:30 p.m.

Gaytan-Leach and Dockendorf simply had an off-day, not winning a game until Christian and Isip were already up, 4-0, in the first set.

They also started slowly in the second set, where they were down, 5-0, before winning back-to-back games.

Gaytan-Leach lost in the doubles quarterfinals at junior sectionals for the second straight year. She said the pressure of finals at CdM High, combined with traveling to San Diego last week for another tournament, were factors.

“I think we were just both run-down and a little tired,” said Gaytan-Leach, who plays Christian again today in the girls’ 18s singles Round of 32 at 4 p.m. at Costa Mesa Tennis Center. “I’m just glad [school] is all done and I can breathe. I still have singles, and I’m just going to go and try my best and work hard. I’m just going to fight.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at [email protected].