Area tennis courts were full this week as high school teams wrapped up their regular seasons.
At Turlock High School on Tuesday afternoon, the Bulldogs boys program secured its sixth straight Central California Athletic League championship with a 9-0 sweep of Pitman High, finishing the regular season with a 9-1 record.
The Pitman team returned home for a quick turnaround Thursday as it needed to make up a rain-postponed match with Enochs. The Pride won 6-3 to finish their season at 8-2 and a runner-up finish in the CCAL.
Friday marked the start of individual and doubles tournaments for the Southern Athletic League, which features co-ed programs Turlock Christian and Denair. The Eagles had two singles champions while the Coyotes claimed a doubles title.
Turlock 9, Pitman 0
Each of Turlock’s seven singles players are seniors, and capped off their Senior Day on Tuesday with victories on their home court.
In top singles play, Damian Acosta defeated Calvin Lin by a 6-3, 6-4 score to improve his personal record to 8-3. Behind Acosta was Peter Buie with a 6-1, 6-3 win against Anthony Stessman. Landon Tillby, who was a member of last year’s CCAL champion doubles team, also claimed individual victory with a pair of 6-3 games against Sebastian Russell.
Turlock’s bottom six individual players each needed three sets to secure victory. Rashmeet Singh defeated David Cisneros 7-5, 7-6 (6), Yaqoob Tarakhail won over Mark Anmari in a 6-6 (7-1), 5-7 (10-8) marathon. Daniel Joseph beat Owen Hofsteen 6-3, 1-6 (10-8)
In doubles action, William Inthongpradith and Joshua Benjamin also went to extreme lengths to outlast Seth Russell and Keerit Kaely by a 4-6, 6-6 (8-6), (10-6). Meanwhile, Diego Zamora and JC Valadez defeated Owen Alberti and Harsimranpreet Singh 6-2, 6-3. Keane Stephens and Joseph Khalar won over Troy Trevino and Simon Baghban by a score of 6-4, 6-2.
“We've had so many great successes the last few years, I always ask, ‘How are they going to repeat it or outdo themselves?’ And the boys always surprise me,” said Turlock head coach Garry Harris. “These seniors, they can all be our top singles players any given day. They are a scrappy team. Whenever we’ve had injuries or have had one of them go on vacation, somebody else steps up. They're always practicing, always talking tennis. It's just a joy to watch them. This is a fun team. I can’t say enough about these student-athletes.
Pitman 6, Enochs 3
The Pride are also senior-heavy, with eight seniors helping jump a spot in the standings from a season ago.
Thursday brought much more enjoyable results for Sebastian Russell, Cisneros, Anmari and Hosfsteen, as well as the duo of Seth Russell and Kaely and the grouping of Trevino and Dean Johnston.
Sebastian Russell claimed victory with a 6-2, 6-1 score to improve his personal record to a team-best 10-3.
Cisneros won 6-4, 6-1. Anmari won his match with a pair of 6-3 games. Hoftseen rounded out Pitman’s singles wins with a 7-5, 6-1 win.
The Kaely and Seth Russell pairing won their doubles match with matching games of 6-4 scores. Trevino and Johnston were victorious with a 6-2, 6-3 match score.
Pitman’s ability to bounce back has impressed head coach Brian Hofsteen, who were able to collect a 7-2 win against Downey after their first loss to Turlock on March 10.
“They’ve all chipped away and are always so supportive of each other,” Hofsteen said, who is in his second season at the helm of the Pride’s tennis program.
“I think one of the biggest differences for me as a second year coach versus it being my first year and as an assistant for a while was just getting to know the players and their individual personalities. They're all friends and so they're all supporting each other. They never get down on each other. I think that's a really important part of this team, just being really conducive to each other. I couldn't ask for a better team to coach. I hope the guys we have going to the CCAL tournaments can have long playoff runs.”
Southern League Championships
Turlock Christian will be well represented in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs in the coming weeks with Aidan Johnson and Claire Betts winning individual Southern League championships.
Betts claimed her league title with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win in the final. As the top seed, she had a first-round bye. In the quarterfinal and semifinal matches, she defeated her opponents by identical 6-1, 6-3 scores.
Johnson was the fourth seed in the boys bracket, clinching his championship with a 6-1, 6-4 win in the final. He won 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the quarterfinal and advanced to the title match with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinal.
Sydney Mohr and Michella Ha also qualified to the section meet for the Eagles with a runner-up finish in the girls doubles tournament. Claiming that doubles title was the Denair team of Shayla Zamora and Piper Northcutt. The duo advanced to the final with a 3-6, 6-1, 10-3 win. Results of the final were not available by press time.
