Los Alamitos’ Jackson Wins Battle of Super Sophomores

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Esperanza’s Tom Lloyd has had a spectacular sophomore tennis season--winning 57 of 60 sets in dual matches. But he was no match for another spectacular sophomore, Los Alamitos’ Cody Jackson, Monday at Lindborg Racquet Club.

Jackson spotted Lloyd three games then breezed to a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the Sunset League singles final.

“I was rolling for the first three games,” Lloyd said. “I think he won maybe four points in those three games. After that, he had all the shots. He didn’t miss at all. There was not much I could do to stop it.”

Lloyd handed Jackson his only regular-season loss, 6-3, during league play. But Lloyd said that set looked nothing like Monday’s match.

“It was the exact opposite, actually,” said Lloyd, who suffered his only singles loss to Foothill’s Joost Hol. “I wasn’t missing that time. We just switched shoes today.”

Jackson’s shoes and his game are bigger than most sophomores. He stands about 6 feet 3 and he uses every inch of that frame to his advantage. Jackson serves and volleys at every opportunity and constantly puts pressure on his opponents by hitting slicing forehands and backhands, then charges to the net.

“You pretty much have to hit great passing shots every time,” Lloyd said.

Or you can try hitting lob shots over Jackson’s head. But those shots have to be perfect if they are going to clear Jackson’s long reach. Most of the time, Jackson put away Lloyd’s lob shots with overhead smashes or crisp volleys.

In the doubles final, fourth-seeded Ed Huang and Samir Vora of Los Alamitos defeated third-seeded Jonathon Yu and Allen Hoang of Marina, 6-1, 6-2. Huang and Vora haven’t played together much this season but they did watch some Pacific 10 Conference doubles together at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament last month.