Stockdale tennis team looks stronger than before
| Monday, Mar 16 2009 12:48 AM
Last Updated Wednesday, Mar 25 2009 06:16 PM
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Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz makes a backhand return to Bakersfield Christian's Alex Nichols during a match at the Lynch Cup tennis tournament held at Bakersfield High School on Saturday. Quiroz won 6-2, 6-4.
It a scary thought for everyone else, but the Stockdale boys tennis team might be even better than it was a year ago. Hard to imagine considering in 2008 the Mustangs won their seventh straight Southwest Yosemite League title before narrowly losing in the Central Section semifinals to top-seeded Fresno-Bullard.
But if Friday and Saturday's Lynch Cup results are any indication, Stockdale is on its way to even bigger success this season.
The Mustangs dominated the American Division of the two-day event at Bakersfield High, easily winning all four of its matches in the round-robin competition.
After beating Centennial and Liberty on Friday, Stockdale swept Bakersfield Christian 7-0 Saturday morning. The Mustangs later clinched the tournament title for the second straight year by beating BHS 6-1.
Stockdale won 24 of 28 individual matches during the event, which it has won all but one time since 2001.
Liberty went 3-1 to take second place followed by Centennial (2-2), BHS (1-3), and 2007 Lynch Cup champions Bakersfield Christian (0-4).
"It's really nice to win this tournament, but we're ultimately trying to get ready to win the valley," Stockdale coach Dave Hillestad said. "...We like winning the Lynch Cup. Its great. Its going to get us ready for the season but our ultimate goal is the valley championship."
The highlight of BCHS versus Stockdale was a highly anticipated match between the Eagles' Alex Nichols and the Mustangs' Jeremy Quiroz, the previous two Central Section singles champions.
After Quiroz took the first set without much difficulty, Nichols fought back to from a three-game deficit in the second set to trail 4-3. But just when it looked like momentum was finally in Nichols' favor, Quiroz broke his serve to go up two games en route to a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
"I guess most of it (the key to winning) was consistency because I wasn't going for a lot shots and he wasn't either," Quiroz said. "It was just kind of whoever missed first."
With the win Quiroz improved to 3-0 against Nichols since the beginning of last season.
"Jeremy is always solid," Nichols said. "He kept the ball in play an attacked my backhand."
As it turned out Quiroz had a much tougher time with BHS No. 1 David Mossman. After losing the first set 4-6, Quiroz rebounded to win the second set 6-0 before narrowly escaping 10-8 in a super tie-breaker.
"Mossman is the type that always makes you play a lot of balls," Quiroz said. "He was playing really consistent in the beginning and got the lead and I gave him the set. I thought I played really well in the second set. The tie-breaker could have gone either way. I was really nervous."
Mossman, a lefty who teamed with Michael Rodriguez to win the section title doubles title last year, led the tie-breaker 8-7 and appeared to have the upset within his grasp. But Quiroz answered with a series of flawless shots to pull out the hard-fought victory.
"It's the best I've ever played against Jeremy," Mossman said. 'I came out there like I had nothing to lose because Jeremy is a great player. I just gave it my all. The end result wasn't a win but it was major improvement for me."
The close call came just one week after Quiroz lost just the second singles match of his high school career, a 3-6, 4-6 setback at the hands of David Engelberg, of Woodland Hills-Taft at the Central California Tennis Classic in Fresno.
The Mustangs beat Bullard 4-2 in that tournament, giving Hillestad much optimism for the new season.
"I have a lot of guys back," Hillestad said. "I only lost my No. 2 and No. 7 players from last year but we have a couple of new guys that are really giving us depth...With everybody back and with the new guys that we got, we're actually deeper and a lot better than last year."
