MODESTO — Manteca’s boys tennis suffered its first loss of the season on Wednesday 7-2 at Central Catholic, and the busy week only gets more challenging for the reigning Valley Oak League champion.

The Buffaloes head to undefeated Kimball today and hosts East Union on Friday, ending a brutal stretch that began with a doubleheader against Lathrop on Tuesday.

No. 1 singles player Solman Aniss rolled past Dane Juarez 6-0, 6-0, while No. 5 Harshawn Singh defeated Singh Lau, 6-2, 6-1. 

“They were just more solid than we were today both mentally and physically,” Manteca coach Frank Fontana said. “They came ready to play and we just never really got it going. On the positive side, I believe we have a better match in us for when we play them a second time, which will be next week.”

Central Catholic was able to pull out closely-contested wins. Manteca’s Nick Pio went the distance with Will Grimes at No. 6 singles but fell short, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 3-6. Kurtis Ma (5-7, 1-6) and Kevin Lin (3-6, 4-6) were also competitive in losses in the second and third singles matches.

Manteca’s third doubles team of Julian Gosul and Kiersten Melan dropped a 5-7, 5-7 decision to Adrian Cuevas and Moises Nunez.