Santa Barbara’s Jackson Powell returns a shot in Thursday’s Channel League win for the Dons.
Miles Hale and Jackson Powell swept their three singles matches, setting the tone for Santa Barbara High’s 15-3 win over Dos Pueblos in a Channel League boys tennis match on Thursday.
The Dons had a balanced attack, winning 7 of 9 singles points and 8 of 9 doubles points.
“We had outstanding performances from our entire team as this was definitely a team effort,” said Santa Barbara coach Greg Tebbe.
Dos Pueblos ended Santa Barbara’s league streak of 114 straight match wins last season. The teams tied for the league title. But on Thursday DP was without key players Joshua Wang, Quinn Hensley, and Ameet Braganza, who are part of Dos Pueblos’ Robotics Competition.
Hale’s 6-4 victory over Patrick Corpuz, along with Powell’s win over Baldwin, in the first round spurred the Dons to an easy win.
“I just played my game,” Hale said. “I tried to make my first serves. I had trouble returning his serve so once I got that down I did well.”
Hale broke Corpuz at 5-4 to take the set.
Dos Pueblos’ Miles Baldwin claimed a set for the Chargers on Thursday.
Tebbe praised the performance of No. 3 singles player Max Mercurio.
“He won his first match and then had to play Dos Pueblos’ two top players in succession. He was down 5-0 to Miles Baldwin and instead of throwing in the towel he fought back and eventually lost 6-4. Against Patrick Corpuz he was again down 5-0 and kept battling to eventually lose 6-1. Those five games he won against DP’s top players after being down 5-0 epitomizes our team spirit in that we continue fighting for every single point, regardless of the score. That effort will be invaluable in a future match when we may be tied and those extra games Max wins could be the difference in the match.”
The duo of Taggart Mills and Tyler Greenwald went 3-0 to pace the Dons in doubles
“I could not be more proud of our team today,” Tebbe said. “We have had a busy two weeks to open our season where we have played six dual matches and four tournament matches. I like the progress we are making. We still have work to do but our effort could not be better.”
The Chargers’ new doubles team of Chris Lane and Mason Dochterman played tough in their three set defeats. They lost 4-6 against the Dons’ No. 1 team and 6-7 against the No. 3 team.
“I am proud of our team for playing fearlessly,” she said. “They gave everything they had and left it on the court. The sportsmanship from both teams was outstanding.”
Santa Barbara is 6-0 overall and 2-0 in league. Dos Pueblos is 3-3, 1-1.
Santa Barbara singles:
Miles Hale 3-0
Jackson Powell 3-0
Max Mercurio 1-2
Doubles:
Harry deBoer / Logan Lender 2-0
Logan Lender / Sebastian Greicke 1-0
Taggart Mills / Tyler Greenwald 3-0
Isaac Kershner / Ben Bird 1-1
Isaac Kershner / William Belfiore 1-0
Dos Pueblos singles:
P. Corpuz 1-2
M. Baldwin 1-2
G. Formen 0-3
Doubles:
R. Daniels / J. Lee 0-3
M. Dochterman / C. Lane 0-3
V. Villano / B. Ambrose 1-2
