In a week that saw two matches get cancelled, Orestimba High School’s tennis team swept their doubleheader on the road against Sonora High School on Thursday, winning both matches 8-1, 8-1.
Orestimba initially was supposed to host Sonora and Millennium High School last week, but both matches were cancelled. The Sonora match got cancelled due to a rain delay on Tuesday, while the cancellation of the match against Millennium was because the school couldn’t find a bus driver.
Head coach Nolan Osborn said while the cancellations ruined the players’ anticipation for the matches, the team used the time off to focus on preparing against Sonora.
“Having it canceled is kind of just a bummer, like we’re ready to roll and then we have all this excitement energy and just doesn’t happen,” Osborn said. “Biggest thing I pretty much tell the kids is, ‘Hold on to it and save it for the next match,’”
Orestimba dominated the singles matches as they won six of the eight matches. The Warriors also won all eight doubles matches and the two mixed matches.
The two singles that Sonora won were due to Orestimba not having a player available for the match.
Orestimba’s Chris Alvarado won both his singles matches against Sonora’s Jonathan Korte. In the first match, Alvarado won in two sets, 7-6, 6-1. He followed up that performance in the second match, where he dominated both sets, 6-1, 6-3.
Mirella Fregoso and Sofiah Ramirez won both of their respective matches in the girls' singles for Orestimba.
Fregoso won both of her sets against Kylie Serva in the first match, 6-4, 6-1. The second match between the two was a back-and-forth contest as it went to three sets. After winning the opening set, Fregoso lost the following set, 6-0, which set up a final set to decide the outcome of the match. She rebounded with a 10-7 win in the final set to win the second match.
Ramirez, on the other hand, had no trouble in the first match against Leyla Wang, winning in two sets, 6-3, 6-3. She carried her momentum into the second match by winning both sets, 6-2, 6-2.
In the boys' doubles matches, the duo of Ernesto Chavez and Kevin Rodriguez won the first match, winning in two sets, 6-3, 7-5. They continued their momentum in the second match, where they won both sets, 6-2, 6-3.
After the Warriors were granted a win in another boys’ double match due to a forfeit from Sonora, Jose Rodriguez and Nabeel Ali held Sonora’s Kylle Milnik and Ethan Smith scoreless as Orestimba won both sets, 6-0, 6-0.
Similar to the previous, Orestimba received a win in the first match of Fernanda Alvarado’s and Isabella Pacheco’s doubles due to a forfeit from Sonora. They dominated their only doubles match by winning in two sets, 6-2, 7-5.
The first match between Orestimba’s Mallory Solano and Giselle Marquez and Sonora’s Lyla Lacitignola and Emma Flake did not disappoint. After going scoreless in the first set, Solano and Marquez bounced back, winning 6-2 in the following set to force a final set. The final set was more or less the same, with Orestimba winning, 6-2.
Solano’s and Marquez’s momentum from the first match carried into the second match, where they won in two sets, 6-2, 6-2.
Only one of the two mixed doubles matches was played as one was handed to Orestimba since there were no players available for that match. In the only mixed doubles match, Orestimba’s Ashlynn Bell and Aaron Gallardo won both sets, 6-1, 6-0.
With four matches remaining in the regular season, starting with Orestimba traveling to Ripon High School on Monday, Osborn emphasized that the team needs to be mentally prepared.
“[The] biggest thing is they just need to be mentally prepared. That’s the biggest thing I emphasized. Tennis is honestly [a] mental sport. You can be physically skilled as much as you want, but if mentally you’re not there, you’ve already lost,” Osborn said.
Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.
