With the regular season coming to a near conclusion, Gustine High School’s tennis team split its two matches against Denair High School this past week.

Gustine hosted Denair on Wednesday and won, 5-4. 24 hours later on the road against Denair, the Reds lost 7-2. 

The team was initially set to play Delhi High School and Turlock Christian High School on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. However, due to controllable circumstances, Gustine had to cancel matches against the respective schools.

Madison Cabral, Gustine’s head coach, said that Delhi didn’t have a driver to travel to Gustine while the match against Turlock Christian was cancelled due to a rain delay. As a result of the rain delay, the Turlock Christian match was rescheduled at some point this week.

On Thursday, Denair won three out of the four single matches against Gustine. Oscar Vergara won the only singles match for Gustine as he won both sets, 6-1, 6-2.

Denair carried their momentum into doubles, where the team also won four out of the five matches played. The Coyotes were given a doubles match due to a forfeit.

Gustine’s duo of Jesus Angulo & Daniel Franco won both sets of their doubles match, 6-2, 6-1.

24 hours before Thursday’s match, the Reds secured a narrow win against Denair.

Both teams fared evenly in the singles matches, winning two of the four matches played. Vergara won both of his sets in his singles match, 6-2, 6-2. Following Vergara was Fernando Felix, who won his singles match in two sets, 6-2, 7-5.

The doubles match proved to be the main determinant in Wednesday’s outcome, with Gustine winning three out of the five doubles matches.

Gustine’s Gabriel Montoya and Rafael Gomez won their doubles match, 6-3, 7-5. Following them was Angulo and Franco, who won convincingly against the Coyotes, 6-0, 6-3.

Afterwards, Denair went on to the next two doubles matches, setting up a final match that not only decided the outcome, but was also the closest match on Wednesday as all three sets were decided by tiebreakers.

In the opening set, Isaiah Salazar and Isabella Haro won their tiebreaker, 7-3, to win the set, 7-6. Denair responded in the second set as they won the set, 7-6, following a tiebreaker win, 7-4. Salazar and Haro responded in the final set where they won, 7-6, after winning the tiebreaker, 10-8.

With their scheduled rematch against Turlock Christian this week, Gustine will play their final match of the regular season before preparing for the Southern Athletic League Singles and Doubles Tournament on April 14-15.

“A couple [of] extra wins could be good for them,” Cabral said about how the team can finish the regular season.

Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.