Second-seeded Santa Barbara High picked up what coach Steve Geremia called a “high-character win” on the road Friday, defeating Westlake’s boys tennis team 14-4.
It was a high-character win because of the likes of Sammer Garcia, who opened up with a loss to Westlake’s No. 2 player but bounced back to beat their top player 6-2.
“Our guys really showed their character today. Every time it got close, our guys would re-focus and they pulled it out. I don’t think we played our best tennis, but our concentration today was very, very good,” said Geremia.
The Dons (16-1) play Woodbridge (18-2) in the third round on Tuesday with the location to be determined. Woodbridge’s top singles player, Mikey Zabian, made it clear in an interview with OCvarsity.com that he doesn’t want to have to head into Dons territory.
“We definitely want to be at home,” Zablan said. “We know about Santa Barbara’s home crowd. We know we won’t have anyone up there.”
SANTA BARBARA 14, WESTLAKE 4
Singles — SB: Nico Pollero 2-1, Sammer Garcia 2-1, Chase Melton 2-0 (ret.). W: Zach Gross 1-2, Krems (2-1), Kyle Berman 0-3.
Doubles — SB: Vaughan-Williams 3-0, Diaz-Maassen 2-0, Maassen-Kirchhoff 0-1, Grant-Liddell 3-0. W: Nelson-Lefkovitch 1-2, Han-Ho 0-3, Cane-Greenef 0-3.
