Carpinteria went toe-to-toe with San Juan Hills in a battle of Division 3 ranked-teams and played to a 9-9 tie in sets. San Juan Hills won the match on total games, 70-66, on Friday at the Carpinteria courts.
“Overall, we played very soundly and I was happy to see us play such a solid team, with good depth, so tough,” said Carpinteria coach Charles Bryant. “It was a fun match to watch from both sides and hopefully a confidence booster that we can compete with some good teams.”
San Juan Hills is ranked 10th and Carpinteria 11th in CIF-SS Division 3
In doubles, the team of Solomon Nahooikaika-Anderson/Kirby Zapata went 3-0 and won with wide game margins, “but they had to earn each point as the competition was very strong and points were hard to come by and we did not get too many freebies through unforced errors or mistakes,” said Bryant.
Luke Nahooikaika-Anderson/Cameron Gralewski went 2-1.
In singles, Austin Stone also went 2-1 “and played a near flawless match against the Stallions No. 2 player. But I was really proud (and worried) about Myles Morgan who moved to singles after a few weeks off and then playing some doubles while he slowly came back from a knee injury. He played well and his second-round match was amazing as he held on to win in a closely contested tiebreak.”
Carpinteria is now 11-2 overall.