Coming off a bye week, Gustine High School’s tennis team lost its match on the road against Waterford High School, 5-4, last Thursday.
Each team won two singles matches out of the four total that were played. However, the doubles matches played a pivotal role in the outcome as Waterford won three out of the five matches to win its matchup.
First-year head coach Madison Cabral praised the team’s relentlessness throughout the match despite not having a couple of players available.
“We didn’t have some players here this time around. It was a struggle, we had to move around our roster a little bit,” Cabral said. “They (Gustine) played really hard.”
The majority of the singles matches between both teams went down to the wire, with three out of the four matches going to three sets.
After losing the first set in his singles match, Gustine’s Oscar Vergara won back-to-back tie breakers to win his match. In the second set, Vergara won the tiebreaker, 7-2, to win the set, 7-6, forcing a third set. He carried into the following set as he won another close tiebreaker, 10-2, to win the final set, 7-6.
Similarly, Fernando Felix lost his opening set before going on to win singles matches with narrow wins in two tiebreaker sets for Gustine. Felix won the tiebreaker, 7-4, to win the second set, 7-6. He later capped off the third set with another tiebreaker win, 10-8, to win the third set and singles match, 7-6.
Following the first two singles matches, Waterford bounced back with back-to-back wins in the singles to tie the score heading into doubles.
The duo of Jesus Angulo and Daniel Franco won their doubles match, 6-0, 6-0. Following them were Mirabel Alvarez and Yajara Huizar, who went into three sets in their doubles match. They won the final set, 10-5.
Waterford would go on to win the remaining doubles matches to win Thursday’s match.
This week, Gustine will begin its longest stretch of matches of this season. They host Delhi High School and Turlock Christian High School on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. After those matches, they travel to Denair High School on Thursday.
Gustine’s matches against Delhi and Turlock Christian will begin at 4 p.m. on the respective dates of the matches.
Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.
