Just two matches into the Valley Oak League tennis season, impressive freshman Logan Staggs of Tracy’s Kimball High has already established himself as the runaway favorite for the singles tournament title.
Defending team champion Manteca High has other goals in mind anyway.
Staggs tore through the visiting Buffaloes’ singles ladder and dropped one game in three sets along the way. Manteca is much deeper, however, proven by its otherwise one-sided 10 ½ to 4 ½ victory.
Manteca (2-0, 5-5 overall) is on a mission to earn its fourth VOL title in five years with hopes of making a deep run in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-II team playoffs.
Staggs did what was expected from an individual standpoint, but so did Manteca as a team.
“It’s always tough when you have one player on a team who is pretty much going to win all of his matches. It almost feels like you’re behind before you start,” Manteca coach Frank Fontana said. “Down 0-3, puts pressure on all of your other matches when you have to get to 8 to win.
“Once we got going we had a solid day overall.”
Manteca singles players Xavier Lopez, Alex Barragan and Brandon Sullivan lost only to Staggs. Kimball’s No. 2 Mark Dalupan and No. 3 Kevin Sung did offer some resistance. Dalupan dropped a 4-6 decision to No. 2 Barragan, and Sung lost to Sullivan by the same score.
Max Angelo and Oral Nunis won their two doubles sets 10-4 and 10-5. Marcus Munoz and Sam Dhaliwal edged Raj Singh and Beau Lawrence 10-7 in the matchup between No. 2 doubles tandems, but they were defeated by Daniel Lee and Amir Kabariti, 7-10.
The Buffaloes looks to further improve their game in the Freedom Invitational in Oakley Friday and Saturday, where they will clash with teams mostly from the East Bay.
At East Union, top singles player Ricky Peloso had little trouble in winning his sets by 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0 scores to help the Lancers (2-0, 5-0) remain undefeated.
At No. 1 doubles, Chris Garcia and Ariel Rossette coasted 10-1 in their first match but sweated out a 10-8 win over Weston Ranch No. 2 Ray Lagoc and Carl Legaspi.
East Union No. 3 Brandon Manville had the longest day, winning two out of three competitive sets (7-5, 3-6, 6-4).
The Timberwolves had little trouble dispatching Lathrop, dropping just eight total games.
Kevin Rausa (6-1, 6-0, 6-0), Forrest Tolman (6-1, 6-0, 6-0) and Greg Blockinger (6-2, 6-0, 6-0) owned the singles matches.
In doubles, Josh Weiland and Joel Boling (10-1, 10-0) and Jimmy Deng and Austin Vietor (10-3, 10-0) were just as dominant.
Defending team champion Manteca High has other goals in mind anyway.
Staggs tore through the visiting Buffaloes’ singles ladder and dropped one game in three sets along the way. Manteca is much deeper, however, proven by its otherwise one-sided 10 ½ to 4 ½ victory.
Manteca (2-0, 5-5 overall) is on a mission to earn its fourth VOL title in five years with hopes of making a deep run in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-II team playoffs.
Staggs did what was expected from an individual standpoint, but so did Manteca as a team.
“It’s always tough when you have one player on a team who is pretty much going to win all of his matches. It almost feels like you’re behind before you start,” Manteca coach Frank Fontana said. “Down 0-3, puts pressure on all of your other matches when you have to get to 8 to win.
“Once we got going we had a solid day overall.”
Manteca singles players Xavier Lopez, Alex Barragan and Brandon Sullivan lost only to Staggs. Kimball’s No. 2 Mark Dalupan and No. 3 Kevin Sung did offer some resistance. Dalupan dropped a 4-6 decision to No. 2 Barragan, and Sung lost to Sullivan by the same score.
Max Angelo and Oral Nunis won their two doubles sets 10-4 and 10-5. Marcus Munoz and Sam Dhaliwal edged Raj Singh and Beau Lawrence 10-7 in the matchup between No. 2 doubles tandems, but they were defeated by Daniel Lee and Amir Kabariti, 7-10.
The Buffaloes looks to further improve their game in the Freedom Invitational in Oakley Friday and Saturday, where they will clash with teams mostly from the East Bay.
East Union 10 ½, Weston Ranch 4 ½
At East Union, top singles player Ricky Peloso had little trouble in winning his sets by 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0 scores to help the Lancers (2-0, 5-0) remain undefeated.
At No. 1 doubles, Chris Garcia and Ariel Rossette coasted 10-1 in their first match but sweated out a 10-8 win over Weston Ranch No. 2 Ray Lagoc and Carl Legaspi.
East Union No. 3 Brandon Manville had the longest day, winning two out of three competitive sets (7-5, 3-6, 6-4).
Sierra 15, Lathrop 0
The Timberwolves had little trouble dispatching Lathrop, dropping just eight total games.
Kevin Rausa (6-1, 6-0, 6-0), Forrest Tolman (6-1, 6-0, 6-0) and Greg Blockinger (6-2, 6-0, 6-0) owned the singles matches.
In doubles, Josh Weiland and Joel Boling (10-1, 10-0) and Jimmy Deng and Austin Vietor (10-3, 10-0) were just as dominant.
