San Marino High School Duo Also Won Prestigious Ojai Championship In April
The Seal Beach Tennis Center was a place for celebration as San Marino High School juniors Bryce Pereira and Connor Lee won the CIF Southern Section individual doubles crown. Already Rio Hondo League champions, Pereira and Lee, were the top seeds, and defeated Brad Cummins and Sebastian Gomez of Palm Desert, 6-4, 6-3, in the finals. Not surprisingly, Pereira and Lee earned the top seed as in April they claimed the doubles championship at the prestigious Ojai Tournament. In the semi-finals, Pereira and Lee defeated Harvard-Westlake’s, Adam Sraberg and Jed Kronenberg, 6-4, 6-0.
“For Bryce and Connor to win Ojai and CIF in the same year is impressive and so difficult to do, especially against formidable opponents like Cummins and Gomez, who played very well in finals and Sraberg and Korenenberg who were tough opponents in the semis,” said head Coach Melwin Pereira, who is also Bryce’s father. “Winning their CIF matches with straight set victories shows how focused they were on their goals.”
This is the second consecutive year that Bryce has won the CIF individual doubles title. Last year, Bryce accomplished the feat with a different partner – recently graduated senior Derek Chen – who played singles this year. San Marino and Palm Desert seem almost intertwined: Bryce and Connor defeated the Palm Desert team of Cummins and Alex Kuperstein in this year’s Ojai semifinals and Pereira and Chen beat the same Palm Desert duo in last year’s CIF finals.
“I could not have won either of these titles without such great partners, Connor and Derek, and the coaching from my dad,” Bryce Pereira said. “I really felt motivated as my dad told me that it would be an unbelievable achievement to win both Ojai and CIF.”
In CIF individual singles play, Ryan Chen lost in the round of 16 to Max Cancilla of Marina High School, 3-6, 2-6. Senior captain Ryan Cheng made it to the quarterfinals before losing 4-6, 0-6, to eventual individual singles champion Bjorn Hoffman of Corona Del Mar. Hoffman’s mother, Biljana Korac, and uncle, Zoran Korac, played for San Marino High School under the legendary Maureen Bryant.
With four team CIF titles, two for the boys and two for the girls, in four short years and two individual titles, it appears that Coach Melwin Pereira is reaching legendary status as well.
