Boys Tennis Makes CIF Championship History!
Eagles Earn Back-to-Back Titles in Dramatic 'Overtime'
by Special ENN Correspondent
As lightning split a cloud-darkened sky, the Brentwood boys varsity tennis team was down 4-9 to San Marino High School in the last of three rounds of play in the state high school Division II championship finals held June 3 in Claremont. With only 5 matches to go, and needing to win them all, prospects looked as dark as the skies overhead. Players and coaches clung tenaciously to tiny shreds of hope. The best Brentwood could dare to dream – improbable as it seemed – would be a 9-9 tie in matches. A winner would then be decided by total games won in each of the 18 sets played in both singles and doubles – on this day, a tally of 150 games altogether. But that, too, seemed as distant as the thunder that echoed across the courts.
A total tie in both matches and games seemed unthinkable. Never before in the history of the CIF finals had a contest ended with the score in both matches AND games dead even. That is, until this day when the Brentwood Eagles achieved one of the biggest team comebacks in CIF finals history to first level the score from a seemingly insurmountable deficit, and eventually earn its second consecutive CIF title and third CIF championship in four years in the tennis equivalent of double overtime.
Two of the Brentwood Seniors – Co-captains Walker Kehrer and Casey Grindon – earned another piece of California Interscholastic Federation history by winning championships in three different CIF divisions during their four years of varsity play: This year in Division II and previously in Divisions III and IV, a feat none of the tournament officials could recall having seen before. (The 4th year was a close loss in the finals.) Walker had surprised the team earlier in the day with news that he’d be in the lineup for the first time in weeks following a shoulder injury, and every team member (see roster below) contributed mightily to help bring home the banner and trophy…
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