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Manteca tennis nets win over reigning champ
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Manteca High’s boys tennis team was not at its best, but it was enough to trounce defending Valley Oak League champion Kimball 7-2 on Tuesday.
The Buffaloes improved to 6-0 (8-6 overall) to remain alone atop the standings, but it’s just the start of a tough stretch that resumes Wednesday at Oakdale. They then travel to Central Catholic on Friday. Central owns a 5-4 win over Kimball, but its top player, Conor Fenton, has recently joined the team from the basketball season.
“It was nice to beat the team that beat us twice last year,” Manteca coach Frank Fontana said. “Kimball normally brings a solid team that is competitive against us, and I would say their players came to play.
“We look rusty after having spring break last week,” Fontana added. “The conditions were not the best to play in but both teams have to play in them. We did what we had to do. Our doubles were dominant today. We had by far more experience than they did in those spots.”
Manteca’s three doubles teams quickly vanquished their opponents. After dropping the first game, Manteca’s No. 2 tandem of Cameron Gonzales and Jake Tolbert ran the table to drop Akshat Sharma and Ethan Vocal, 6-1, 6-0. The top duo of Dhillon Patel and Kevin Lin beat Jacob Febre and Austin Almiranez by the same score. Robert Foo and Niko Plares contributed a 6-1, 6-1 at third doubles.
Solman Aniss came up short in a battle of VOL unbeatens at No. 1 singles. Logan Le, the VOL Tournament runner-up a year ago, held off the sophomore, 7-5, 7-5.
“Solman had chances to win and we talked about what he needs to do to the win next time,” Fontana said. “Logan is extremely consistent and he waits for you to make the errors. There are a couple of items we can work on to make it better for the next match.”
Kimball’s other point came from No. 6 singles, as Brandon Basto came back to knock off DeAngelo Caldera, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
In another competitive match, No. 4 Yok Whai Ma staved off Paolo Acosta, 6-4, 4-6 (10-8). Si Hao Tang (6-2, 6-1), Yok Eyh Ma (6-2, 7-5) and Joseph Poncini (6-0, 6-3) swept their opponents.

East Union 6,
 Weston Ranch 3
STOCKTON — East Union forfeited all three doubles matches but won every singles match for its first win of the season.
Jake Kramer outlasted Ian Obiso 7-5, 6-4 in the No. 1 singles match, and No. 2 Hector Romero had the same scores in his victory over Noah Beltran.
Jeffin Abraham edged out Brendan Lee 6-4, 6-7, 12-10 in the No. 4 matchup. Others scoring for East Union were Matthew Vadachira (6-1, 6-2), Ryan Austin (6-0, 6-1) and Johns Thomas (6-2, 6-4).

GOLF
Central Catholic 201,
Manteca 279
League points all went to visiting Central Catholic (5-1), which was paced by medalist Nick O’Brien’s 2-over 39 at Manteca Park Golf Course.
Dylan Haro led Manteca (0-2) with a 48. Ruben Hurtado (54), Adrian Gonzales (57), Marc Buenrostro (60) and Isaac Bill (60) made up the rest of the Buffaloes’ score.

Freshman softball
East Union 13, Lathrop 3
Kaitlyn Leal struck out nine in her one-hit gem for East Union (9-4) at Northgate Softball Complex on Monday.
Ashley Martin and Kayla Bottoms highlighted a six-run inning, coming through with a triple and double, respectively.