It was asking a lot, but Santa Barbara High’s boys tennis team almost pulled off the improbable task of sweeping the doubles in a CIF Division 1 quarterfinal match against visiting Woodbridge on Wednesday.
The Dons came within one set in the final round from taking all nine sets and advancing to the semifinals.
Morgan Hale of Santa Barbara returns a shot against Woodbridge High School
Woodbridge’s Colby Trinh and James LaFond played the spoilers as they gave their team its lone doubles win to even the score at 9-9. The Warriors, led by their strong singles players, prevailed on total games, 86-66.
“This team, I knew they were going to dominate in singles, so I knew we’re going to have a hard time getting any points in singles,” Santa Barbara coach Greg Tebbe said.
Woodbridge’s trio of Patrick Lipscomb, Joey Brandt and Jake DeVries captured eight singles sets in convincing fashion, losing only seven games in those sets.
Chris “Booie” Grant nabbed the lone win for the Dons in the second round, beating DeVries 6-4.
“We got a critical point and that gave us a chance to win,” said Tebbe. “Their singles players are so strong, they’re some of the strongest players in all of CIF. I thought our singles players played fine. They’re just too strong.”
Logan Liddell goes up to smash an overhead for a point for Santa Barbara.
That left it up to the doubles teams to keep Santa Barbara alive in the playoffs.
“When you’re faced with that, it’s hard because it’s hard to expect to sweep doubles,” Tebbe said. “(Woodbridge’s) three doubles teams are all very good. Our doubles teams played just amazing today. To win eight out of nine points in doubles, is amazing. It’s a lot of pressure to put on them to win all nine.”
The Dons (21-4) were up to the task. The No. 1 team Mitchell Kuhn-Logan Liddlell earned a 7-4 tiebreaker win over Pete Dakich-Masato Nakamiya in the second round to give the team a 7-5 lead going into the final round of play.
Kuhn-Liddell won again, 7-5, and Morgan Hale-Jack Damen captured their third set of day, 6-3.
But Trinh-LaFonde came through for Woodbridge (18-3), making big play after big play to hold off Cooper Matthiesen-Graham Maassen, 6-3.
Despite the tough defeat, Tebbe and the Dons have a lot to look forward to next season, as they lose only three seniors.
Santa Barbara 9 (66 games)
Singles:
Chris Grant 1-2
Nico Pollero 0-3
Ryan Chung 0-3
Doubles:
Logan Liddell / Mitchell Kuhn 3-0
Morgan Hale / Jack Damen 3-0
Graham Maassen / Cooper Matthieson 2-1
Woodbridge 9 (86 games)
Singles:
P. Lipscomb 3-0
J. Brandt 3-0
J. De Vries 2-1
Doubles:
A. Trinh / J. Lafond 1-2
C. Bridge / A. Tran 0-3
P. Dakich / M. Nakamiya 0-3
Please note that James Lafond is the correct spelling , not LaFonde.
And his double partner Colby and himself won the last point for Woodbridge on James’ birthday !
That was like James birthday ‘ present to his team !
LOL THEY SUCK…this should show woodbridge winning at least one point. Santa Barbara got destroyed in singles. Woodbridge’s 1 and 2 singles were incredibly dominate out there
Woodbridge is lucky sam wasnt healthy enough to play!