Los Altos High tennis coach Cuong Duong laughed when asked if he has nightmares about Menlo School.
A tennis powerhouse like Menlo can make almost any opposing coach lose sleep - especially one who's faced the Knights more than once.
This school year, Duong has coached two Eagle teams that were unlucky enough to draw Menlo in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Both Los Altos squads fell like an empty can of tennis balls in the wind.
The Los Altos girls lost 6-1 in the quarterfinals last November. And last week, the Eagle boys were swept 7-0 in the semifinals of the Small School division.
"We didn't have a chance," Duong said of the latest defeat. "They're way better than us at every position."
Menlo (22-0) proved that with straight-set wins in all seven matches May 19 in Atherton. The top-seeded Knights won 61 of the 84 games they played against No. 4 Los Altos (14-6).
The closest match was at No. 1 singles, where Eagles junior Mike Duong lost 6-2, 6-3 to Dmitry Tursunov.
"Mike played a pretty good match," Cuong said of his nephew, "but he lost a couple of deuce games."
Mike shouldn't feel too bad about losing to Tursunov, who's the top-ranked prep player in Northern California. The 15-year-old Russian is so good, some local coaches hear he may soon go pro.
If Tursunov turns pro, coach Duong believes Menlo will become vulnerable.
"Without him, I think we can beat them next year," he said. "They should be weaker because everyone moves up a spot."
That could help coach Duong reach his ultimate goal: a CCS championship. He has vowed to stay at Los Altos until he leads either the boys or girls to a title.
"I won't consider leaving until we win one," he said, "and it would be so sweet if we did it against Menlo."
In the other semifinal last week, St Francis lost 4-3 to host Robert Louis Stevenson.