Mater Dei’s Matteo Huarte wins singles title at Ojai tournament

At a school with Santa Ana Mater Dei’s rich athletic tradition, it’s rare to be the first to achieve anything, but Matteo Huarte made history Saturday by becoming the Monarchs’ only CIF singles champion at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament.

After losing in straight sets to University of Irvine’s Rishvanth Krishna in last year’s final, Huarte wasn’t about to waste his second chance. He took an early lead in the first set tiebreaker, then broke to open the second set en route to a 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over Woodbridge’s Brayden Tallakson in front of a packed stand at Libbey Park.

Huarte had four breaks of serve – the last being a cross-court pass shot on match point. The final resembled Huarte’s semifinal victory over UC Irvine’s JiHyuk Im, in which he won the first set tiebreaker 7-4, then prevailed 6-2 in the second set.

“I’m happy I was able to do it for my school,” said Huarte, a junior who has committed to USC. “We played against each other several times and the key was to manage his serve and get into the rally. Once I beat him in the tie-break and then won the first game of the second set, I was able to run away with it.”

Mater Dei’s only other title in the Ojai tournament’s long and storied history came in doubles in 2008 when Charlie Alvarado and Chris Freeman beat top seeds Tyler Bowman and Jon Kazarian of Peninsula in three sets.

“It’s a little hard to believe I’m the first to do it,” Huarte said of his singles title.

Last year, Huarte fell in the Southern Section semifinals to Palos Verdes ninth-grader Andrew Johnson, who went on to beat Tallakson 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

Tallakson was trying to write his own story Saturday in a place close to his heart.

Woodbridge’s Brayden Tallakson celebrates after his quarterfinal victory over Beckman’s Rohan Grewal at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For Time)

“I started playing tennis at Lower Libbey, my dad Steve grew up here and won the men’s tournament, so this place is like home to my family,” said Tallakson, who promptly beat Palisades freshman Kensho Ford 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals. “Matteo was very aggressive, I made some mistakes on big points and he was simply the best player today.”

Tallakson won the boys 14s division in Ojai in 2022 and had he prevailed on Saturday, he would have been the first player to win the CIF singles and doubles titles in Ojai since Santa Barbara’s Nathan Jackmon won the doubles in 1993 and the singles in 1994. Tallakson won the doubles crown in 2023 with his older brother Avery, who he will reunite with next year at Boise State.

Peninsula seniors Colin Bringas and Edward Feuer produced one of the most dominant doubles runs ever seen in Ojai, defeating Harvard-Westlake’s Aaron Chung and Chase Klugo 6-4, 6-2 in the final. The Panthers duo did not lose a set in six matches and did not concede more than three games in a set until the first set on Saturday when they broke in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead and then served.

Bringas and Feuer are the first Peninsula duo to reach the CIF final in Ojai since 2011 and the third tandem in history to win it, joining Rylan Rizza and Jeff Kazarian in 2001, and Kazarian and Tiege Sullivan the following year.

Peninsula seniors Colin Bringas, left, and Edward Feuer celebrate after winning the CIF men’s doubles title at the Ojai Valley tennis tournament Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For Time)

“We’ve been playing together since second or third grade and we’ve been best friends since middle school at Ridgecrest Intermediate. [in Palos Verdes]”, Bringas said. “I always play on the advertising side, he always played on the court of both. I think the key was the big serves…they make it easy for the net man to put away the balls.

Bringas and Feuer have teamed up in Ojai for the past three years, losing in the quarterfinals as sophomores and juniors, but steamrolling this year. They committed a measly three unforced errors in a 6-1, 6-1 semifinal elimination of Marina’s David Tran and Alejandro Hill. Tran was playing in his second consecutive final, having won second prize with Trevor Nguyen in 2025.

“We were confident of winning, but we felt the pressure and knew there were a lot of good teams here,” said Feuer, who plays No. 1 singles for doubles matches while Bringas plays No. 1 doubles with another teammate. “It will be really strange playing against each other next year.”

Bringas is bound for Westmont College and Feuer is headed to Point Loma Nazarene – rival NCAA Division II programs in the Pacific West Conference.

Harvard-Westlake, Woodbridge and University shared the Griggs Cup trophy, awarded to the school with the most combined singles and doubles victories. All three notched seven wins to force a three-way tie for just the fifth time since the award began in 1955 and the first since Santa Barbara, Palisades and Fresno Bullard were three-time champions in 1997. The university has won it 13 times.