Montclarion
April 28, 1992
Skyline clinches OAL tennis title
By Peter Mentor
Skyline wrapped up a nearly perfect season under head coach Jesse Inclan with a 6-1 win over Oakland Tech to take the Oakland Athletic League title on Thursday.
The Titans went undefeated with an 8-0 record in League play, dropping only two individual matches within team play the entire regular season.
Six of the matches were 7-0 sweeps and the other two were 6-1 wins, so no team even came close to beating the Titans. That makes Skyline the favorite going into the OAL championships at Davies Tennis Stadium this week.
The Oakland Tech Bulldogs finished second in the league at 6-2, its only losses coming against Skyline.
The Bulldogs came into the match on Thursday with a good chance of tying the Titans for the regular season league championship. Tech only had one loss to Skyline in early March, a 7-0 sweep, but the Titans came into the last match without Chris Cornell and Randy Oh, the No.1 and No. 2 singles players.
A Bulldog win would have tied the two teams' records at 7-1 for a share of the league title. A Titan win meant a third consecutive championship for Skyline and second straight under Inclan.
With the top two singles players gone, the next three Titan players moved up two notches in the rank for the match against Tech.
Skyline senior Marc Chinn moved up from No. 3 singles to take the No.1 slot to play Tech Junior Nak Chhiu. Chinn won the first set 7-5, but Chhiu came back to tie it on a 7-5 victory in the second set. Chinn got stronger, however, as he knocked off Chhiu 6-2 to take the third set for the match.
"I went in there pretty confident," said Chinn. "I had a game plan and I used it and it worked, but I don't want to reveal it (until after the OAL championships)."
The victory gave Chinn the second seed in singles at the OAL championships beginning today at Davies Stadium. Oh is not playing at the tournament and Chinn snuck by Chhiu for the second seed.
"It feels good," said Chinn of his OAL singles seeding. "This is my senior year and I'll try to win a medal in the OAL championships. I got one last year in doubles, but I want to get one in singles."
Senior Mark Lee moved up to the No. 2 slot from his regular No. 4 placement and faced Tech junior Nham Pham.
Lee won easily 6-2, 6-1 and will play in the OAL tournament.
Tech was without No. 3 singles player Hugh Lam, who was in Washington D.C., so Cuong Lee moved up a notch to play Skyline junior Peter Yang at No. 3 singles.
Yang edged Yee 7-5 in the first set, then hammered out a 6-2 win in the second set for the win.
Yang also got a berth in the OAL singles tournament and will team with Chinn in doubles as well at Davies.
In doubles, Eric Ko and Brandon Moy won 6-1, 6-0 over Khoung bank and John Huynh. At No. 2 Jimmy Lee and Steven Leong handled Hua Tuong and Allan Lin 6-1, 6-3.
The only loss of the day and the second of the season for Skyline was at No. 5 singles. Skyline senior Michael Ho, playing up eight places from No. 13, lost 6-3, 6-2 to Matt Jordon, normally a doubles player.
The OAL title was the fourth for second-year coach Jesse Inclan, who has won it twice with the Skyline boys' and Skyline girls' teams.
"I went 4-4 and got it," said Inclan, who will quit coaching after this season. "I'll take next year off."
The season still has this week to go. Skyline has the largest contingent of players in the OAL tournament.
Cornell, although out against Tech, received the No. 1 seed and a bye in the opening round of singles along with Chinn who was the only other seeded player.
The singles start today at 2:30 pm and should end tomorrow.
Marc Chinn leads the Titans to the championship