CLAREMONT — Being a leader means trusting your teammates.

As the lone senior in the lineup for the Thacher School boys' tennis team, Will Oberndorf not only trusts, he believes.

"You know what? I was never worried about these guys," Oberndorf said after Thacher's 10-8 victory over La Salle in the CIF-Southern Section Divison V team tennis championship at the Claremont Club on Wednesday.

"We started out the season slowly. We've got a bunch of goofballs on this team. But they're also great guys and great tennis players. I knew they would play well today."

The team graybeard came through and so did the kids as Thacher won its first Southern Section tennis crown.

Oberndorf and sophomore McCoy Becker each swept three singles sets, and the No. 1 doubles team of Stephen Yih and Andrew Pollett were heroes with a flair for the dramatic by rallying from an 2-5 deficit to post a win in the match's pivotal set.

Thacher, in ending the season at 16-3, not only lives up to its No. 2 seeding, it completes the comeback from a year ago when it lost to arch rival Cate in the Division V final.

"This really means the world to me," said Oberndorf, also a star running back on the football team. "I've been on this team four years, and to end it with a CIF championship fulfills my dreams. I'm the only senior, so everybody on the team made it a point to say they wanted to win it for me. I'm overjoyed at how it worked out."

Thacher's strength in singles' play was critical, with the team winning seven of nine singles sets. Oberndorf scored 6-1 wins over No. 1 Kevin Sitwala and No. 2 Chris Lam, and held off No. 3 Kevin Jick, 7-5.

Becker's sweep included a win by tiebreaker, 7-6 (6) over Lam.

Still, it was a pair of doubles wins by Yih-Pollett that turned out to be the difference.

In the second rotation, with Thacher holding a 6-5 lead in sets, Yih and Pollett fell behind to La Salle's No. 2 tandem of T.J. Juston and Spencer Scott 5-2.

If the La Salle duo could have held on for the win, the two schools would have been tied at 6-6 heading into the final round, with La Salle owning the edge in total games. Instead, Yih, a sophomore, and Pollett, a junior, transformed into Team Clutch.

The duo held serve twice, and recorded two breaks to go up 6-5. Yih, serving for the set, fell behind 15-40 but responded by winning four consecutive points to hold and pull out the set.

The secret? Stay composed.

"Obviously, 2-5 is not a good place to be," said Pollett. "But it's doubles, and anything can happen if you play hard and persevere. We just tried to stay confident and put pressure on them."

Even more impressive, after the emotional win, the duo came back to sew up the championship with a 6-0 win over Tony Exposito and Marco Suarez in the final set of the match.

A stumble here, and the championship might not have happened.

"You've got to start fresh in every set," said Pollett. "We're were excited about winning the last set. But we knew we had to get out there and win the next one, too."

La Salle (24-5) was also looking for its first CIF-SS crown. The Lancers upset No. 1 Cate in the semifinals, 11-7, but couldn't take down Thacher. Cate defeated Thacher twice in Condor League play.

"Cate was probably looking past them to get to the finals," said Oberndorf. "It would have been fun to go against them again, but in the end it doesn't matter.

La Salle is a very good team, and it means a lot to beat them. It just feels great to be a champion."