Wood and Butts defend Ojai titles
Senior captain Warren Wood (Del Mar, CA) and junior Skyler Butts (Santa Ana, CA) became the first players in CMS history to win back-to-back Ojai Division III titles. Wood defended the Ojai singles crown by beating Butts in straight sets in the final, while Butts defended the doubles championship by partnering sophomore Daniel Morkovine (San Carlos, CA) to defeat Wood and Joe Dorn (Sr. - Washington D.C.) in three sets in the final.
Wood and Butts join Lawrence Wang ('09) and Alex Lane ('13) as the only other Stags to win multiple Ojai titles. Wang was the first CMS player to win a singles title as a senior in 2009, after he and partner Gui Schils ('09) had won the doubles crown as freshmen in 2006. Lane became the second Stag to capture the Ojai singles title, winning in 2011. He reached the singles final again in 2012 and then won the doubles title the same year with Robbie Erani ('12).
Wood won all five of his matches this weekend in straight sets. Against Cal Lutheran's Moises Cardenas in Sunday's semifinal, Wood saw a commanding 6-1, 4-1 two break lead disappear. After dropping the next four games, Wood faced two set points against him at 4-5, 15-40, but held, then broke at fifteen, and then served out the win to advance to the championship match. Against Butts in the final, Wood held off three set points - two with Butts serving for the first set, and one at 5-6 in the tie-break - before closing out the first and then taking the second with only one break.
Butts staged his own series of comebacks en route to the doubles title with Morkovine, a year after winning the event with Neel Kotrappa ('14). In the semifinal against Pomona-Pitzer's Jonathan Kim and Graham Maassen, Butts and Morkovine trailed 5-2 and by two service breaks before reeling off six straight games for the 8-5 win. Then in the championship match on Sunday against the West Region's top doubles team, Butts and Morkovine came back after winning only one game in the opening set to take the title.
As a team, CMS had one of their best Ojai tournaments ever, with six Stags advancing to the singles quarterfinals and four CMS teams reaching the doubles quarters. The Stags return to conference dual match play this Friday as the top seed in the SCIAC tournament hosted by Caltech. CMS face host and 8th seed Caltech on Friday at 10:00 AM. The Stags continue round play on Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM against either #4 Cal Lutheran or #5 Chapman. Final rounds of the tournament resume on Saturday at 10:00 AM.