Both the 15- and 12-year-old boys teams from the Courtside Tennis of Los Gatos lost last year in the final round of the USTA State Championships. But those losses spurred them on this year when they returned to the finals and took their championships.

Courtside sent three teams to the state finals held at Harbor Bay Club in Alameda this year after sending six to the Northern California playoffs--the boys and girls 18s, 15s and 12s. Only the boys won NorCal titles and moved on to state.

The 15-year-olds were all but unstoppable this year. They finished both NorCal and state without losing a single match. Simon Wu of Thatcher School, the only returner from last year, stepped up to the No. 1 position and performed nicely with an undefeated season. Stace Klinger of Leland High School was right behind Wu at No. 2, also finishing with an unblemished record.

The 15s defeated the Anaheim Tennis Center in the final round of the tournament to take home the Gar Glenney Cup. The results were: S. Wu 6-3, 6-1, Klinger 6-1, 6-1, Mike Wu of Saratoga High School 6-0, 6-0, Andrew Hsieh of Redwood Middle School 6-1, 7-6 (4), Jon Tran of Los Altos 6-0, 6-0 and John Jain of Bellarmine 6-3, 6-2.

In the NorCal playoffs held in Fresno on Aug. 5-7, Courtside's 15s downed Crow Canyon. S. Wu won 6-3, 2-6, 10-7, M. Wu also won in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 10-8, Klinger finished 6-1, 6-2, Hsieh ended up 6-4, 6-3, Tran won 4-6, 7-6, 10-5 and Ryan Kerin of Saratoga took over the No. 6 spot and won 6-2, 6-3.

The 12s walked home with the Gar Glenney Cup as well after their 7-2 win over Heritage Park. Both Matthew Roberts of Dartmouth Middle School and Garrett Taylor of St. Mary's School finished their seasons undefeated in singles, doubles and mixed doubles and Eric Johnson of Bret Harte Middle School pulled out a come-from-behind win in the final round of the tournament to help in the win. Johnson won 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, Roberts won 6-0, 6-0, Jimmy Castellanos of Redwood Middle School won 6-2, 7-5, Taylor won 6-3, 6-2, Brent Johnson of Greystone Middle School fell 6-2, 6-0 and Devashish Joshi of Miller Middle School won 6-1, 6-3. E. Johnson and Roberts paired for a doubles win 6-3, 6-1 and Castellanos and Taylor teamed up to win 7-5, 6-2.

The 12s went 8-1 in their performance at the NorCal playoffs against Brookstone. The results were: E. Johnson 6-1, 6-0, Taylor 6-2, 6-1, Castellanos 6-0, 6-1, Roberts 6-3, 6-0, B. Johnson 6-1, 6-2 and Joshi 6-0, 6-0. Christopher Chen of Egan Middle School and Kevin Brogan of Fisher Middle School lost 3-8 in their doubles match, Steven Chung of St. Andrews School teamed up with B. Johnson for an 8-0 win and Rushikesh Joshi of Miller Middle School and Kevin Gao won 8-0 as well.

The boys 18s were the defending champions from 2004, but this year they were unable to top the team from Surf and Turf in the final round of the tournament. They won only two of nine matches. Patrick Brogan from Los Gatos High School won 6-4, 6-1 and Thang Nguyen of Yerba Buena won 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The 18s were considerably more successful in the NorCal playoffs where they swept Gold River in six matches. The results of those matches were: Ronald Huang of Lynbrook 6-3, 7-6 (7), Chase Huebner of Los Gatos 6-2, 6-4, Brogan 6-1, 6-4, Matthew Solomon of St. Andrews 6-4, 6-3, Mark Waylonis 6-0, 6-0 and Nguyen 6-1, 6-0.

The girls were not as fortunate as the boys this year. The 15-year-old girls lost in the finals to Round Hill 7-2 despite Tiffany Nguyen of Monta Vista High School's perfect season. The 18-year-olds lost to the Blossom Hill Aces 5-1 with Anita Athavale of Mitty High School finishing the season without a loss.