Dos Pueblos, you have the Dons’ attention.
The Chargers gave defending Channel League champion Santa Barbara a scare on Wednesday, matching the Dons after the first round before falling off in an 11-7 decision.
Chase Melton played doubles on Wednesday with Chris Williams and swept an easy three sets.
“That’s the best DP team I’ve seen in a very long time,” said Santa Barbara head coach Steve Geremia. “We definitely though we could lose this match today. We knew that was a possiblity and we took nothing for granted.”
The match was tied after the first round thanks to a singles sweep by Austin Cano, Sasha Gryaznov and Christian Edstrom.
Santa Barbara swept its doubles sets in every round, however, and the Dons clinched the victory thanks to gutsy singles wins by Graham Maassen and Nico Pollero.
UCSB-bound Gryaznov won two more sets while Edstrom won two total and Stephen Long one. Edstrom’s only loss was a tiebreak loss to Pollero.
Dos Pueblos is 4-4 overall and 0-2 in league, although Richard Cheng hasn’t played in league yet for the Chargers.
Dos Pueblos' Sasha Gryaznov swept his three sets against the Dons.
Santa Barbara is undefeated at 4-0, 2-0 in league. The Dons will test their strength this weekend at the Rising Stars Tournament in Orange County. SB opens against Northwood at 11 a.m. on Friday.
SANTA BARBARA 11, DOS PUEBLOS 7
DP Singles: Austin Cano 1-1, Sasha Gryaznov 3-0, Christian Edstrom 2-1, Stephen Long 1-0. DP Dubs: Andy Silverstein/Eric Katz 0-3, Malcolm Sutton/Robert Laskin 0-2, Peter Shao/Sean Handley 0-2, Sean Simpson/Robert Laskin 0-1, Mitch Hanson/Eric Zmolek 0-1
SB Singles: Matt Baum 0-2, Niko Pollero 1-1, Graham Maassen 1-1, Mitch Kuhn 0-1, Adrian Huffard 0-1, Avery Chernin 0-1. SB Dubs: Chase Melton/Chris Williams 0-3, Dan Diaz/Jim Vaughn 0-3, Chris Grant/Logan Liddel 0-3
