Garden Grove Defeats Servite in Division III

Garden Grove surpassed its high-water mark and kept on going Tuesday. The fourth-seeded Argonauts, playing in the quarterfinals for the first time, defeated Servite, 11-7, in a Division III match at Garden Grove High.

The Argonauts (22-3) will meet top-seeded Westlake Village Westlake in the semifinals Friday.

“We were ready for it, we were confident and I really wasn’t surprised about anything,” Garden Grove Coach Damon Robbins said. “They let it hang out and they did what they were supposed to do.”

Garden Grove was once again supported by its doubles teams, which won eight of nine sets, including a 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 sweep by Bryan Tran and Jason Choi, and a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory by Kevin Kim and Sam Choe.

“We’re real tough in doubles, we have a lot of depth,” Robbins said. “But we play tough in singles as well. We’re an all-around good team, we don’t have a No. 1 guy and then the rest is junk, we’re all pretty even.”

Servite’s Ryan Moore, one of the top-ranked juniors in the state, did his usual damage in singles by winning, 6-1, 6-0, 6-1.

Teammate Brock Haverland also picked up two impressive victories for the Friars (18-3) by defeating Danny Bui, 7-4, in a tiebreaker, then getting by Andro Ignacio, 7-5. Michael Melby also finished with a 7-3 tiebreaker victory over Bui.

“I would have liked to see us do better in some of those tiebreakers,” Robbins said. “There’s going to be some big points in the next match and we have to win those. It may come down to a couple of forehands or a couple of backhands.”

Robbins, in his first year at Garden Grove, is fairly unfamiliar with the Argonauts’ next opponent. About the only thing he knows is that Westlake has four ranked freshmen.

“I know they’re the No. 1 seed, but other than seeing one of their players at Ojai, I’ve never seen the team play before,” he said.

In Division II:

Santa Margarita 12, Claremont 6--Garrick Gaffney and Andy Larson swept at doubles, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, as Santa Margarita defeated Claremont in the quarterfinals.

The Eagles (20-3) will play Beverly Hills in the semifinals.

Sunny Hills 14, Corona Centennial 4--Chris Chung won his matches, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0, and the doubles team of John Choi and Tuji Chang won, 6-4, 6-0, 6-0, for Sunny Hills (18-3), which will play Santa Barbara in the semifinals.