Re-Cap of Boys Tennis Match - Banning vs. Narbonne - 3/30/09

Congratulations to the Boys Tennis Team for an incredibly exciting and intense win vs. Narbonne on Monday.  The win marked the end of the first half of league-play, with the Pilots now firmly in possession of 2^nd place with a 4-1 league mark, with a 4-game win streak heading in to the 2^nd half of league-play.

In Singles, Hernan Suarez held tough in a very back-and-forth first set, winning by the slimmest of margins in the tie-break, before closing it out with relative ease in a 6-2 2^nd set.  While the scores don't necessarily show it, Ricardo Zaragoza, Justin Garcia & Victor Duran all played well.

Facing a 3-1 deficit after the first 4 matches, the Pilots would have to sweep the singles.  Things did not look promising, at first.  Although Carmelo Jaramillo & Hector Briseno won easily, the other two doubles matches were in doubt.  Ignacio Torres & Marcus Macias won their first set easily, but seemed to lose some major focus after dropping four straight games in the 2^nd set, after leading 4-2.  In the 3^rd set, they also trailed early 0-3, eemingly ending the Pilots' hopes.  However, Torres/Macias mounted their own comeback and actually had a match point at deuce, and 5-4 in the third, but Torres double faulted.  After losing that, and another game, the Gauchos had a match point of their own at deuce and 6-5, but Torres stuck a great volley to force the tie-break.  Torres/Macias left no room for doubt in the tie-break, winning 7-0 and creating the drama of the last match on court.

In that last match, things also didn't look so promising for the Pilots as Joseph Mejia & Daniel Gomez, despite their best efforts, lost the first set by the slimmest of margins, in a tie-break of their own.  However, rather that allow themselves to be discouraged by the fact that their best effort wasn't enough to win them the set, they were encouraged by the fact that they were so close.  In a tight 2^nd set, the Pilots finally got a break at 4-4, and Gomez served it out to force a 3^rd set.  With all eyes firmly planted on the final and deciding set, the pressure mounted as the Gauchos battled to keep it even through the first 4 games.  However, Mejia & Gomez won 4 of the last 5 games in an extremely exciting and intense match that gave the Pilots the team victory 7 sole possession of 2^nd place in the Marine League.

In JV action, Miguel Pila & Kevin Reyes, Eric Mendez & Alex Chun, as well as Kwang Lee & Eloy Ruiz took a total of 4 games over varsity & mixed-level competition.

Awesome Job Pilots & Good Luck at Carson on Wednesday!

BOYS TENNIS MATCH

ADDITIONAL MATCHES (JV/EXHIBITION)