Under cloudy gray skies Thursday, the first day of Ojai CIF boys’ tennis singles and doubles had its share of delays at Thacher School and Villanova Prep.
Dos Pueblos High School’s Sean Handley powered efficiently through his match against Connor Fulgham, 6-2, 6-1, two-and-a-half hours after the initial start time of 8 a.m. at Thacher.
We then headed to Villanova Prep, where our doubles team of Caleb Franzen and Jake Roberts began their match at 1:30 p.m., delayed by just one hour. They battled with a variety of shots against the impressive duo of Jack Felich (two-star recruit) and Austin Rapp (four-star recruit) from Palm Desert, but fell 0-6,2-6.
We then returned to Thacher for Handley’s second round at 3:30 p.m., but rain soaked all of the courts. We returned on Friday under summery conditions, where Handley faced off with four-star recruit James Wade from San Marino, who eventually took the match 6-1, 6-1. The two had incredible rallies with blistering groundies.
Way to go, Chargers!
— Liz Frech coaches boys’ tennis at Dos Pueblos High School.