Never give up, dig deep and see what happens …
When I attended the sports media luncheon Monday, I mentioned that our players “rise to the occasion” whenever starters are missing, and the Dos Pueblos High School boys’ tennis team did just that against the Oxnard Yellow Jackets, winning 13-5 and improving their record to 5-3. In addition, some of the DP players were battling illnesses, injuries and fatigue.
In doubles, the Chargers swept, losing only 11 games. In the third round, alternates David Chan and Andrew McGuan stepped up and posted a 6-2 doubles win.
The singles proved more challenging and tiring. Jared Madison (No. 36, B14s; No. 143 B16s) was on court for nearly 80 minutes in his first-round match against Trent Lopez (No. 140, B16s). He showed his mental toughness by climbing back from a 1-4 deficit to force the set to a tiebreaker, which went Lopez’s way. The menu consisted of long rallies, bullet balls and constant movement. Many shots just blazed the lines. Despite the long set, Madison mustered up enough energy to snag a set in the second round.
In the third round, Andrew Tufenkian relieved Madison and took the set from Jerome Amparo 6-3. Sean Handley (No. 111, B16s) was trading shots with Ethan Lopez (No. 95 , B16s) when his leg started to hurt. He had to come out after the first round. Matt Long stepped in to cover the second and third rounds, and split sets. Greg Steigerwald added the fourth singles set.
Dos Pueblos will host Calabasas on Wednesday. Way to go, Chargers!
Dos Pueblos Singles
Jared Madison 1-1
Sean Handley 0-1
Greg Steigerwald 1-0
Andrew Tufenkian 1-0
Matt Long 1-1
RIchard Cheng 0-1
Noah Gluschanoff 0-1
Dos Pueblos Doubles
Peter Shao/Mason Casady 3-0
Jake Roberts/Caleb Franzen 2-0
Eric Katz/Alex Yang 3-0
David Chan/Andrew McGuan 1-0
Oxnard Singles
Trent Lopez 3-0
Ethan Lopez 2-0
Ruben Ramirez 0-3
Jerome Amparo 0-1
Oxnard Doubles
Riley Nicoll/Ryan Le 0-3
Ian Chairez/Gerlad Cuico 0-3
Joseph Perez/Nick Behrens 0-3
— Liz Frech coaches boys’ tennis at Dos Pueblos High School.