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Silverado doubles team Kalin Westover, left, and Ben Song celebrate a point during their playoff match against San Gorgonio on Thursday.
James Quigg / Staff Photographer
Silverado’s Ataru Akiyama stretches for a return during a singles match.
James Quigg / Staff Photographer
Hawks reach second round
Silverado edges San Gorgonio in CIF-SS playoffs
VICTORVILLE — In a rare show of emotion, Ataru Akiyama buried his face in a towel after his first set.
The exchange student from Japan was uttering in his native tongue to motivate himself during the match, but things didn’t turn out the way he wanted.
All he could do was apologize to his teammates.
“I encouraged my teammates that we should each take three sets, and then I became the first to drop one,” Akiyama said. “I couldn’t keep my promise.”
As the No. 1 singles player for Desert Sky League champion Silverado, Akiyama hasn’t dropped a set during the regular season, in which the Hawks played against only High Desert schools. He also dominated the league’s individual championship.
But on Thursday, Akiyama suffered his first loss as San Gorgonio’s Michael Lim outplayed him 6-3 in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division IV boys tennis playoffs at Silverado High School. The good news for Akiyama, however, is that the Hawks edged the Spartans 10-8.
Six of the 18 sets were determined by two or fewer games.
“When I saw the warm-up, I thought we had a decent chance,” Silverado coach Suzi Paxton said.
Lim, a four-time defending San Andreas League individual champion, defeated Akiyama, John Park and Joaquin Enciso for a sweep. His powerful serve and forehand were something the Hawks haven’t seen in regular season play.
“In the league I had been winning by playing defensively, but when you get to this level, it doesn’t work,” Akiyama said. “I need to switch to a more aggressive style of play.”
The three Silverado singles players bounced back to win the rest of their six sets by sweeping San Gorgonio’s Jason Horn and Emilio Codecido.
The Hawks’ No. 1 doubles pair Ben Song and Kalin Westover swept three sets.
“Us taking three was the main key, especially since what happened to our No. 1 and No. 2 singles, and Joaquin won against the No. 2 was also a key,” said Westover, who’s the captain of the team. “From the beginning, we knew it. I believed in the confidence of our team.”
Steven Loveland and Obik Chowdhury, the No. 2 doubles pair for Silverado, won a close set against San Gorgonio’s No. 2 pair Gonzalo Codecido and Victor Martinez to help the Hawks get ahead of the Spartans.
Loveland and Chowdhury dropped the first two games, but rallied to make it 4-2. Codecido and Martinez then tied the set at six to go into a tie-breaker, which the Hawks’ pair won 9-7.
“I saw a couple of teammates win and some lose,” said Loveland, whose father called from work to check on his son’s match. “I was happy that we won.”
Park also won a close set against Emilio Codecido at the end of the day when the match was on the line. Park was down 6-3 in a tie-breaker when Codecido thought he won the match 7-3. After a discussion by the coaches, the set resumed and Park bounced back for a 9-7 victory.
Silverado could play No. 2 seed Rowland in the second round of the playoffs Saturday.
SAN GORGONIO SINGLES
Lim 6-3, 6-2, 6-0; Horn 0-6, 4-6, 5-7; E. Codecido 0-6, 6-7 (7), 1-6.
SAN GORGONIO DOUBLES
J. Nguyen-Kern 2-6, 6-2, 6-2; G. Codecido-Martinez 3-6, 6-7 (7), 6-3; Williams-D. Nguyen 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
SILVERADO SINGLES
Akiyama 3-6, 6-0, 6-0; Park 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7); Enciso 0-6, 7-5, 6-1.
SILVERADO DOUBLES
Song-Westover 6-2, 6-3, 6-2; Loveland-Chowdhury 2-6, 7-6 (7), 5-7; Garcia-Lindholm 2-6, 3-6, 4-6.
Tomoya Shimura can be reached at 951-6281 or tshimura@vvdailypress.com.
