TENNIS ROUNDUP : Mission Viejo Beats El Toro, Clinches Berth at Section Meet

The Mission Viejo boys’ tennis team clinched second place in the South Coast League and secured a spot in the Southern Section playoffs with a 13 1/3-7 2/3 victory over El Toro Thursday at Mission Viejo High School.

“It was important for us to win today, because obviously the No. 2 team gets a much better draw,” Mission Viejo Coach Bill Smith said. “The chances are we will play another second- or third-place team in the first round and there is only one second-place team we wouldn’t want to face . . . University. Everyone else we are comfortable with.”

El Toro (15-9, 5-5 in league) needed the victory to clinch a tie for second place with the Diablos, But the Chargers fell into a tie for third with San Clemente and will face the Tritons today in a tiebreaker match to decide the final playoff spot.

Mission Viejo (10-10, 7-3) led throughout, behind the play of its doubles teams. After two rounds, the Diablos led, 8 1/3-5 2/3. El Toro knew it could rely on John France and Alex Brown to win their final sets in singles, but they needed a sweep in doubles to win the match.

In the end, the Diablos were the ones with the sweep and the victory. Fernando Machuca and Christian Fernandez swept their sets, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, and Josh Fair and Coung Tran also swept, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Toffer Patton and Derek Toross won 4-6, 4-6, 6-3.

“I finally found some combos that help us win more,” Smith said. “I don’t think we have any one strength; we are just very well balanced. I don’t think our record reflects how good we really are.”