The Palos Verdes boys tennis team showed up at the Santa Barbara courts clad in red and black on St. Patrick’s Day and were rightfully pinched 12-6 by the appropriately olive-trimmed Dons.
Half of Santa Barbara’s point total was racked up by singles player Billy Grokenberger and the doubles tandem of Evan Teufel and Chris Williams. Both took their three sets while giving up just a single game.
“They were a couple of lions for us,” Dons head coach Steve Geremia said of his recently formed doubles team.
Geremia also said he thought it was important to get a good start on Tuesday and that the Dons did. The score was 5-1 after the first round, which included a tiebreak win from Jim Vaughan and Christian Wheeler.
Adrian Huffard and Chris Grant took two sets on the day and Dan Diaz also won two sets on the singles side.
Santa Barbara improves to 4-3 this spring and takes on Ventura in its Channel League opener on Thursday before heading to the All-American Tournament this weekend.
SANTA BARBARA 12, PALOS VERDES 6
SB Singles – Matt Demopoulos 1-2, Bill Grokenberger 3-0, Dan Diaz 2-1. PV Singles – BRoyes 1-2, J. Hawke 2-1, B. Conbon 0-3. SB Doubles – Adrian Huffard – Chris Grant 2-1, Evan Teufel-Chris Williams 3-0, Jim Vaughan -Christian Wheeler 1-1, Cooper Mathieson – Andy Busch 0-1. PV Doubles – Scharffenverger-N. Gong 1-2, E. Lim-R. Smith 2-1, C. Ruth-C. Gomez 0-3.
