Santiago Franco bagged the first win for Sierra in quick order Monday, taking the No. 6 singles match in a shutout.
The No. 3 doubles team of Alex Rey Rosario and Zain Ali fittingly closed the show with a three-set victory. The top-seeded Timberwolves flexed the depth of their roster in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinal, downing No. 5 Antelope, 6-3.
They’ll compete in the Section finals for the first time on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at a site yet to be determined. Regardless of the result in the title round, Sierra (15-1) — which faces No. 2 Los Banos or No. 3 Mira Loma — has mounted an historic run to get to this point. The T’wolves are first-time Valley Oak League titlists, and fellow co-champ Oakdale has reached the Division II final.
“We’re just glad to be in the section (playoffs), and to finally be in the finals, I’m just really happy,” Franco said.
Franco kept his perfect season record with a resounding 6-0, 6-0 vanquishing of Jasmebar Singh. Ashton Hillard then took down Trenton Olson 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, and No. 5 Oliver Naven outlasted Gurkirat Singh, 7-6, 6-3 to give Sierra the early 3-1 lead.
“He had a really good first serve,” Naven said of his opponent. “I would say we were really even in our playing capabilities, but I think what it came down to endurance.
“The first set was really close, but in the second set I think he just kind of lost confidence. One thing that helps is having a good mentality for the game. It’s a physical sport, but it’s also a mental sport.”
With the Nos. 1 and 3 singles matches still hanging in the balance, the rest of the bottom rungs of Sierra’s ladder took care of business.
Sparsh Beedi and Sid Gopendran swept the No. 1 doubles match 6-3, 6-4 against Andrew Haynes and Oliver Tiv.
Moments later, the No. 2 tandem of Ryan Alves and Harshith Kumar locked down the clinching point for the entire match, dispatching Elmer Vargas and Kai Batson, 6-3, 6-0. Alves and Kumar were shaky to start, dropping the first three games of their match before running the table.
“We usually get off to hot starts and then we cool down,” Alves said. “It was kind of the opposite today.
Once we started to get our serves in, we were good.”
With the overall winner already decided, Rey Rosario and Zain Ali outlasted Chris Naing and James Gervett, 6-1, 2-6, 10-7.
Antelope (8-6) won three of the first four singles matches.
Brady Alves came up short against Rudra Golen 5-7, 7-6, 6-10 in a sometimes-chippy No. 1 singles match. No. 4 Hasnain Ali also fell in three sets 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 against Andrew Cordoba. David Martin lost at No. 3 to Ricardo Ginocchio, 2-6, 5-7.
