Newport Harbor’s tennis duo of Andy Myers and Josh Watkins advances to CIF round of 16

Reporting from South El Monte —  It wasn’t the best performance by Andy Myers and Josh Watkins, but the Newport Harbor High boys’ tennis doubles team will take Thursday’s result.

The tandem surged back in both sets to claim the CIF Southern Section Individuals tournament round of 32 match at the iTennis Performance Center in South El Monte. Myers and Watkins bounced Brentwood’s Michael Gilfenbain and Myles Goldman 7-5, 6-4 after consecutive 3-1 holes.

They advance to the round of 16 to face Rei Landesberger and Stetson Martz of Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula on Friday at 11 a.m. at Seal Beach Tennis Center.

Brentwood raced out to a 5-2 lead in the first set behind forceful serves and returns by Gilfenbain.

“It was rough in the early going,” said Myers, a senior. “We could tell from warmups that both were powerful players.”

Watkins, a junior, spearheaded the comeback in the first set. He smashed several volleys to break Goldman’s serve, then held his own serve to cut the deficit to 5-4. He tied the set after a thunderous exchange of strokes with Gilfenbain.

Watkins and Myers, the Sunset League champions, never lost composure during the early onslaught.

“We just needed to build some momentum,” Watkins said. “We practiced these situations before, and with a powerful server like that, we just needed to keep the ball in play. Once we started rallying, we calmed down.”

“Josh plays with a lot of fire,” Newport Harbor coach Kristen Case said, “whereas Andy is even-keeled and steady. Their games complement each other, too. Andy is so good at the net, and Josh is fantastic on the baseline.

“They were sluggish early, but they just kept their heads down and dug out of it.”

Newport Harbor took the final two games to close the first set. With every point lost, Gilfenbain and Goldman’s shots turned more erratic. Both botched volleys into the net for consecutive game points.

“The match really came down to a few points here and there,” Brentwood coach Rachel Viollet said. “You have to not only credit Newport’s aggressiveness, but their composure near the end. We made way too many unforced errors.”

Gilfenbain sparked the early lead in the second set behind strong serves and backhands. Myers and Watkins pulled from an earlier experience to adjust.

“Brentwood’s style really resembled a team that we played in Ojai, one of the first teams we played together,” said Myers. “We got beat pretty badly then, but it helped us acclimate for matches like today.”

“I don’t think I ever got used to [Gilfenbain’s] serve, personally,” Watkins said with a chuckle. “It was hard to break him. His serve was strong enough to always start him on offense, so we just had to buckle down and keep things in play.”

Down two games in set No. 2, Watkins delivered speedy serves to snag a game. Both Brentwood players pushed shots out of bounds in the next game to tie the set.

Myers broke the tie by zipping a return past Goldman. Goldman held serve, but then flubbed a volley into the net in the next game to give the lead back to Newport Harbor. Myers and Watkins finally broke a Gilfenbain serve to clinch the match.

“This has been such a fun ride for Josh and Andy,” Case said. “It’s hard to believe, but they only recently started playing doubles together. They both are singles players, but they’ve congealed so quickly.

“It’s exciting to have them representing our school in the round of 16.”

SAM DODGE is a contributor to Times Community News. Follow him on Twitter: @samgododge