All season, Manteca High boys tennis head coach Frank Fontana has praised the players on the lower end of the team ladder, and understandably so.
Teams, after all, don’t get to compete for Sac-Joaquin Section championships without depth.
But in Monday’s SJS Division III semifinal with Tri-County Conference champion River City it was the commanding efforts of the Buffaloes’ top singles players and No. 1 doubles team that helped them get over the hump. They edged out the visiting Raiders of Sacramento, 5-4.
The win sets Manteca (19-3) up for its second-ever final-round appearance. The Buffs head to Ceres — a 5-4 winner over Kimball — on Wednesday. They last made it to the finals in 1988 when they lost to Central Catholic 8-1 in Division II.
“This was a tough one for us,” Fontana said. “River City had a really deep team that pushed us across the board. Having two outstanding players in Yok (Jing Ma) and Mike (Lopez) at 1 and 2 singles was huge for us today. They stepped on the court and took care of business.”
Ma breezed past Gabriel Maltez 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 1 singles match, while Lopez blanked Alex Vigil, 6-0, 6-0. Ma and Lopez are vying for a berth to the SJS Division II Doubles Tournament final this Thursday.
At No. 5 singles, Kyle Thornburg gave what Fontana called a “workmanlike effort” in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Antonio Quenga. No. 6 Spencer Jackson prevailed 6-4, 6-1 in his match. Gino Mercardo (1-6, 7-6 [7-5], [10-12]) and Nolan Osborn (6-7, [8-10], 5-7) both dropped competitive matches but with the overall team outcome already decided.
“Spencer came up big today,” Fontana said. “He struggled last week in our playoff match and I was debating on not playing him, but I’m glad I did play him today. He really stepped up after being down 0-3 in the first set.”
Manteca’s No. 1 doubles pair of Yok Ehy Ma and Si Hao Tang ran the table against Adrian Ellescas and William Chan, who led 4-3 early on. Ma and Tang wound up with the victory, 6-4, 6-0.
“Once they got rolling they were nearly unstoppable,” Fontana said.
Manteca will face its toughest test Wednesday against four-time defending Western Athletic Conference champion Ceres, which boasts a perfect 26-0 record. The Bulldogs are led by sophomore Nolan McCaig, who reached the SJS Division II Individual Tournament championship round last year. They have eight other starters who are four-year varsity players.
“This was great preparation for the section finals,” Fontana said. “We will take the 5-4 win and see where it takes us. All the hard work for the past year the guys have put in have put us in the position we want to be at, now we just need to put that final effort in.”
