Cate Wins CIF Title in Tennis Thriller
May 22, 2025
The Cate Rams defeat the San Marcos Royals to capture the Division 3 tennis championship, their second in three seasons.
Team photo celebrating the win.
On a beautiful afternoon at the Claremont Club, Cate and San Marcos did the Santa Barbara tennis community proud with a championship contest that came down to the last 10 minutes of a three hour marathon match.
The Rams were led by the three time Tri Valley League champion doubles tandem of Nate Newlove ’25 and Harry Su ’25, the lone seniors on an underclassmen heavy squad. They swept the day with a trio of 6-1 wins. Early in the first round, 9th grader Andrew Jayich erased an early deficit to win his first set 7-5 over San Marcos’ Elliot Grey. It was clear the Rams knew they had to overcome the powerful Carter Cotich who would go on to sweep the day at #1 singles. Cate #1 Kakeru Hirofuji ’27 dropped a tough match to Cotich in the opening round while the #2 doubles team Graham Clinger ’26 and Alex Danley battled valiantly and came up short as well. Following wins by Bruce Li ’28 at #2 singles and Kaden Greene ’27 and Kendrick Suen ’28 at #3 doubles the Rams to close out the round, the Rams found themselves up 4-2 at the end of the first rotation.
In the second round, the Royals gained some momentum with a 3-3 rotation of their own. Su/Newlove, Li and Hirofuji picked up vital wins in the frame. Hirofuji defeated San Marcos #2 Dylan Cotich by a decisive 6-2 margin to give the Rams some hope heading into the final round with a 7-5 lead.
The final frame was a beautiful reminder of the amazing nature of high school team tennis. Newlove and Su came through again pushing the lead to 8-5. The substitute doubles team of James He ’27 and Kenny Wang ’27 were defeated by San Marcos #1 doubles team of Spencer Bauer and Kyle Shaffer to trim the lead to 8-6. For the final doubles match of the day, true drama unfolded as Kaden Greene was serving up 40-0, 5-4 in the set against Owen Hennesee and Levi Reece for the Royals. With the magical number 9 in the balance, Reece and Hennesee battled back to take the game and force the match into a tiebreak at 6-6. In a pivotal swing in the match, Greene and Suen battled back nerves to find resi
Nate Newlove ’25 and Harry Su ’25
lience and win the tiebreak and give the Rams the crucial 9th point. The excitement of the doubles win quickly gave way to euphoria as Kakeru Hirofuji found victory over Elliot Grey to close out the cliniching 10th point for the Rams. Carter Cotich defeated Bruce Li 6-3 for the Royals’ 7th and final point before Jayich defeated Dylan Cotich to close out the scoring, finalizing an 11-7 championship win for the Rams.
For Head Coach Lance Kronberg, this is his second CIF title with the first being the Division 3 crown in 2023. In his post match comments he recognized the valiant effort of the San Marcos team and the great match played at Claremont while congratulating Head Coach Emily Carver on a fantastic season and finals run. Having a regional Santa Barbara rivalry play out in Claremont shows how strong area high school tennis is.
The Rams finish the season as Tri-Valley League and Division 3 champions with a record of 15-1.