Under perfect tennis weather — just warm enough and a slight breeze — the Dos Pueblos High School and Ventura High School boys’ tennis teams were focused and fired up on Thursday to play their league match.
Both coaches are friends, and mutual respect ruled the day. The Chargers took eight of nine sets in doubles and six in singles in their 14-4 win.
DP’s starters had their hands full with Jacob Rucker (Ventura’s No. 1), who swept his matches. In two of the singles sets, two Chargers, Sam Boulanger and Joshua Wang, fell hard on the court but bounced back and continued to play. They didn’t want to come off the court and finished their matches. What a duo!
In doubles, DP’s starters did well. Mason Casady and Andrew Tufenkian lost only one game in their sweep.
At the end of the match, we shook hands and shared pizza. Way to go, Chargers! Dos Pueblos (11-2 overall, 4-1 league) will host Buena High School in another league match Friday. That will finish our fifth match of the week.
Dos Pueblos Singles
Sam Boulanger 2-1
Joshua Wang 1-1
Patrick Corpuz 2-0
Richard Souleles 1-0
Sanad Shabbar 0-1
Dos Pueblos Doubles
Jake Roberts/Caleb Franzen 3-0
Mason Casady/Andrew Tufenkian 3-0
Greg Steigerwald/Sean Handley 2-0
Kyle Riharb/Ankush Khemani 0-1
Ventura Singles
Jacob Rucker 3-0
Nolan Rucker 0-3
Brad Shaw 0-2
Jeremy Short 0-1
Ventura Doubles
Brandon Bushnell/Will Vanhyning 1-2
Zack Scurrah/Broghan Wheelan 0-3
Wesley and Ryan Harris 0-3
— Liz Frech coaches boys’ tennis at Dos Pueblos High School.