Prep tennis: Wild card Lorenz wins unexpected singles championship
May 4—Last into the field. Last one standing.
Technically, Albuquerque Academy sophomore Oliver Lorenz did not even quality for this week's high school state singles tournament. But on Thursday afternoon, it was the 6-foot-5 Lorenz towering over the field with a Class 1A-4A championship at the Jerry Cline courts.
Lorenz, a sophomore, beat Academy teammate and second-seeded Connor Dils, 6-3, 6-2, to complete a thrilling and unexpected 48 hours.
"Awesome," Lorenz said. "Yeah, it's super cool."
Lorenz joined a pair of No. 1 seeds from Eldorado in Class 5A, senior Philip Bosin and sophomore Vianca Corley, and Academy's third-seeded Lily Bosch, as singles champions Thursday.
None of the four champs were as surprising as Lorenz, who needed a wild card invitation to compete this week. The top three singles finishers at each of the five district tournaments earned automatic bids for the draw in Class 1A-4A.
Lorenz was fourth in his district. But it's a 16-player bracket. Coaches around the state decided Lorenz should be given the one wild card berth as the 16th and final player in the field.
And over the course of two days, he toppled the No. 1 seed, Luciano Silveria of Hope Christian, in the quarterfinals after two recent losses to him; he dispatched the No. 4 seed, teammate Ketan Garg of the Academy, in the semifinals on Thursday morning; and in the afternoon Thursday, he defeated Dils, who had only dropped seven games in his three victories in the tournament.
"I always try to set myself to a high standard," Lorenz said. "I came in trying to win it all, and I'm really happy that I came out and did that."
Bosin, a senior, went back-to-back with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over second-seeded Leo Rocca of Albuquerque High. He was undefeated this season and lost only two sets along the way, both at the metro tournament late last month. Eldorado has won the big-school singles final in seven straight seasons.
"I had a target on my back, right?" Bosin said of his quest to repeat. "Everyone wanted to beat me, I had the pressure (and) the ball's in my court metaphorically speaking, to do something."
He added, "I'll miss this, that's for sure."
Corley's 6-3, 6-2 triumph over No. 3 Samantha Baltz of Rio Rancho was the sixth singles title for Corley's immediate family, which includes sisters Ivana (three) and Carmen (two). She also has a cousin, Paris, who is a previous singles champion at Grants.
"I'm very happy right now," Corley said. "I'm excited. I'm glad I could get a state title my first year playing (at Eldorado)."
Academy's Bosch had the most physically grueling day of any of the four singles champs. She needed three sets to oust No. 2 seed Kate McDonald of Los Alamos in the semifinals, and needed three more long sets to take down No. 1 Tatiana Dalton-Spilca, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, in the final.
Bosch said she re-gripped her racket prior to Thursday morning's semifinal, and it caused major blister problems on several of her fingers on her right hand throughout the day.
"I was running around forehands and hitting backhands for probably the first time ever for me," she said. "That was a big thing to get over."
Dalton-Spilca was down 4-1 in the third set, rallied to lead 5-4, but Bosch steadied herself and won the final three games.
La Cueva won a boys doubles state title for the seventh season in a row, with second-seeded Calvin VanDyke and Thaaj Bhardwaj winning the 5A title. Cameron King and Stephanie Romero, the top seed, completed a state doubles sweep for La Cueva.
In 1A-4A, Academy's Emeline Doscher and Michelle Deng (seeded No. 2), and St. Michael's Kameron Dunmar and James Utton, also won doubles championships.
State team action begins Friday.
