MacColl-Wei Win All-CMS Ojai Final
Brandon Wei (So. – Lake Oswego, OR) and Eric MacColl (Sr. - Greenbrae, CA) won the Ojai Division III doubles title by defeating teammates Ronald Wu (Jr. – Los Altos, CA) and Robbie Erani (So. – New York, NY), in the first all-CMS Ojai doubles final ever. MacColl and Wei become the third CMS doubles team since 2004 to win the Ojai crown, and the first unseeded team to do so. MacColl, playing in his final Ojai tournament, also reached the semifinals of the singles, winning nine of ten singles and doubles matches in three days.
Eight singles players and four doubles team represented CMS at the Ojai tournament. The Stags, however, were without #2 singles player and team captain Mikey Lim (Sr. – Honolulu, HI) – who stayed on campus to complete his senior thesis – and #4 singles player Russell Brockett (Jr. – Austin, TX) – who was resting a hip injury. Erani, rehabilitating a shoulder injury, chose to play doubles only.
Still, CMS demonstrated how deep their lineup is by putting up great results in both singles and doubles. Six of the eight Stags playing singles advanced to the second round, with three of those advancing to the final sixteen. Senior Thomas Keiffer (La Jolla, CA) defeated 9th seeded Mark Magdaong of Linfield College in the first round, and then UC Santa Cruz’s Aaron Morrill in the second round, before falling in the round of 16. Freshman Alex Johnson (Thousand Oaks, CA) created the most buzz of any other Stag in the first two days of the tournament. Johnson yielded one game to 9th seeded Kyle Anderson of Linfield in the first round, then defeated Redlands’ #3 Jeff Hammond in straight sets in the second round, before knocking off SCIAC Player of the Year and the west region’s top player Andrew Giuffrida of Cal Lutheran in the round of 16.
While Johnson battled through to the quarters before falling to 5th seeded Marc Vartebedian of UC Santa Cruz, MacColl was moving on without the loss of a set. On Saturday, MacColl earned straight set wins against the #1 players from both Redlands (Cameron Spearman) and Pomona-Pitzer (Tommy Meyer) to set up his semifinal match with Vartebedian on Sunday.
In doubles, the Stags had three teams advance to the quarterfinals. Seniors Keiffer and Spencer MacColl (Greenbrae, CA) were winners over Redlands’ #3 team and Pacific Lutheran’s #1 team (and Northwest Regional Fall ITA Champions) to advance to the final eight. Erani and Wu, seeded 5th, defeated #1 teams from Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer before knocking off the 4th seeds from Redlands in the quarters and Santa Cruz’s #3 team in the semis. MacColl and Wei had wins over Willamette’s #1 team, the 7th seeded #2 team from Cal Lutheran, and then two of the top #1 teams in the west in the quarters (Redlands) and semis (UC Santa Cuz) respectively.
In winning the title, MacColl and Wei’s had to beat three consecutive #1 teams, including their own teammates in the final match. They become only the fourth doubles team from CMS to win the Ojai doubles title, and improve their record as a team to 19-2 on the season. MacColl’s four singles wins improves his record to 20-4 on the season.