No. 3 Santa Barbara didn’t get any favors on Friday, playing on the road in its second round match and having to travel all the way to south Orange County for its second CIF playoff match in as many days.
No matter as the Dons took the 11-7 decision at Dana Hills and advanced to Tuesday’s quarterfinal matchup with Mater Dei.
Warren Hardie kept the Dolphins in the match being the only singles player to sweep his sets. Channel League singles champion Chase Melton and Bill Grokenberger won their other two sets and Chris Grant won the only other he played.
Dons head coach Steve Geremia was happy to get that point because Grant had spotted his opponent a couple of games.
“Chris Grant played a really good match,” he recalled. “He dug himself into a hole, then dug himself out.”
In doubles, the Dons went 6-3 but two of the losses came in tiebreakers. Spencer Simon and Evan Teufel were tested but swept in sets of 6-0, 6-4, 7-6.
“We expect a lot out of them and we got a lot,” said Geremia, who also got two sets from the Danny Diaz and Chris Williams combo.
SANTA BARBARA 11, DANA HILLS 7
SB Singles – Grokenberger 2-1, Baum 0-1, Grant 1-1, Melton 2-1. DH Singles – Hardie 3-0, Chang 1-2, Wall 0-3. SB Doubles – Simon-Teufel 3-0, Williams-Diaz 2-1, Wheeler-Demopoulos 1-2. DH Doubles -Furhman – Bloom 0-3, McKinney-Sneed 1-2, Myers-Dell 2-1.
