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Title time again for Menlo tennis

by Keith Peters

It was three days before the Menlo School boys' tennis team was to play its first match in the CIF USTA NorCal Regional Championships and already Bill Shine knew how his squad would fare.

"We're going to win this thing," Shine said, well before the first serve was ever put into play. "I have a good feeling about this."

The good feeling came from looking at the brackets for the tournament. Gone was defending champion Monta Vista of Cupertino, which had been upset in the Central Coast Section Division I tournament by Los Gatos. Gone, too, was 2002 runnerup Miramonte, which had upended Menlo in last season's semifinals.

"I thought we had a chance because Monta Vista wasn't there," Shine said of the one local team that has tested the Knights in recent years. "After they didn't make it and Los Gatos did, I felt pretty good about our chances."

With Monta Vista and Miramonte out, the NorCal field took on a different look -one with a lot of new teams like Monte Vista (Danville), De La Salle and Los Gatos.

"I was happy to see that," Shine said of the new teams. "I think it take about a year to get used to it."

The NorCal tournament is a different kind of animal, one where experience pays dividends to the teams who have been through the rigors of at least three matches in two days. And that's exactly what happened once again Saturday as Menlo held off Los Gatos, 4-3, at Stanford's Taube Tennis Center for its fourth NorCal championship in the five-year history of the tournament.

"Experience is everything," said Shine, whose seven-year record at Menlo improved to 167-11 with this season's fine 25-3 mark. "There's nothing like experience."

Menlo's experience, or Los Gatos' lack thereof, showed in two key areas Saturday. The first was at No. 4 singles, where Menlo sophomore Andrew Grauer wound up winning by default when Los Gatos freshman Chase Huebner suffered leg cramps after defeating Grauer in the first set, 7-5.

Shine said he had no sympathy for Huebner.

"That's all part of the game," Shine explained. "You have to be in condition. That's why Menlo runs all the time, and it paid off."

While the default came on the heels of victories by junior Scott Blumenkranz at No. 2 singles and sophomore Andrew Diehl at No. 3 singles and gave the Knights a 3-0 lead, it was short-lived. The Wildcats rallied to win at No.1 and No. 2 doubles, trimming Menlo's lead to 3-2 with only No. 3 doubles and No. 1 singles remaining.

In the stadium, Menlo senior David Oehm was battling in a third-set tiebreaker. Out on court 6, the Knights' tandem of senior Charlie Wolfson and freshman Daniel Goldstein held the upper hand in the third set.

The majority of the Menlo players, however, were out cheering their doubles team as the weight of the tournament fell on Wolfson and Goldstein.

"We definitely knew the score," Wolfson said. "I knew David was struggling. I knew it definitely could come down to us. The team was cheering us on. We didn't want to let them down."

And they didn't. Wolfson and Goldstein pulled things together and held on for a 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 triumph. With the title-clinching point secured, the Menlo players jumped the fence and raced onto the court to embrace their heroes.

"It was great the way they mobbed us," said Wolfson, who teamed with Goldstein for the deciding point in the Knights' 6-1 win over R.L. Stevenson in the CCS Division II finals on May 15.

For Wolfson, who'll attend Duke next fall, Saturday was his final competitive match and certainly the best way to end his career.

"I couldn't think of anything better," he said. "This for me is a dream come true."

For Goldstein, meanwhile, it's just the beginning. While this was his first NorCal finals, he played with the icy calm of a senior.

Nervous?

"Not at all," he said. "We knew Los Gatos was nervous."

Goldstein hopes he can help continue Menlo's winning tradition after learning first-hand this season what it's all about.

"I learned the importance of the whole team thing," he said. "It was great to be a part of helping continue the Menlo tennis tradition. Hopefully, we can keep it going next year."

Menlo loses six seniors off its latest championship team - Alex DeGolia, Nick Giacomini, Chris Harris, Corey van der Wal, Wolfson and Oehm.

Blumenkranz, Diehl and Grauer will return to solidify the singles lineup while Christian Hansen and Elliot Tight return intact at No. 2 doubles.

Menlo, by the way, graduated eight seniors in 2002.

"This was a young, relatively inexperienced team at the beginning of the year," Shine said. "But, they extremely hard to get this far."