Behind No. 2 doubles win, Cards edge Spartans
With the match on the line, Lindsay juniors Ernie Eufraine and Ronnie Cortez defeated Austin Della and Ivan Ceja in a tiebreaker, 7-3, to win the second doubles set 8-7 and the overall match for the Cardinals, 5-4.
The Spartans’ second doubles team led Eufraine and Cortez 4-3 before the Cardinals picked up two straight wins to take the lead in the set.
Della and Ceja answered back and pulled out two straight wins of their own to gain a 6-5 lead in a race to win eight games. The two teams traded wins after the side switch and the Spartans maintained a slight lead, 7-6. Lindsay would tie the set up at seven apiece by spiking a lobbed shot from Ceja, sending the set into tiebreaker.
The Cardinals were on a roll and took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker. After the initial lead Lindsay gained, the two teams traded points until the Cardinals were one point away from victory, 6-3.
Della then attempted to spike a shot from Eufraine but his shot didn’t clear the net, securing a 7-3 win in tiebreaker for Lindsay.
“They played really well. Ronnie is an animal at the net and Ernie has good baseline strategy. They work really well together and can move around the court without having to communicate,” Lindsay coach Nicole Schiro said.
Lindsay and Strathmore split the six singles matches and both teams headed into the doubles matches tied at three all.
Strathmore senior Ryan Clifton was defeated 8-5 by Lindsay’s Josh Castro in the No. 1 singles matchup. Castro led the set 5-1 until Clifton mounted a comeback by winning three consecutive games to pull within one. Clifton and Castro traded wins to bring the set count to 6-5, Castro leading. Castro defeated Clifton after going into deuce five times in the 13th game and eventually finished out the set by winning the eighth game.
“I am proud of him (Clifton) for fighting back and I know that he’s tired and continued to give 100 percent. He set a great example for some of the younger players, even though he didn’t win,” Strathmore coach Derik Knutson said.
Lindsay’s second singles player, Tom Yang, perfected Daniel Magana 8-0 in the second singles match. Neither Castro nor Yang have lost a match to the Spartans in both league meetings this season.
“Tom was our No. 1 singles player for the first half of the season, but Josh recently beat out Tom for the top spot. I think that this set up will work out really well for us being as Josh is a very consistent player and Tom might actually be the more skilled one of the two,” Schiro said.
Della began to turn things around for the Spartans by defeating Eufraine in the third singles match, 8-3.
Cortez was able to thwart Strathmore’s Justin Reyes’ rally late in the match to pull out an 8-5 win.
The Spartans swept the fifth and sixth singles matches to tie up the match count at three each.
“I was hoping we could get four wins in the singles matches as we had last time we faced Lindsay but it didn’t happen for us,” Knutson said.
Castro and Yang teamed up in the No. 1 doubles matchup against the Spartans’ top singles player, Clifton, and Felipe Novoa. Castro and Yang overpowered their opponents and won handily, 8-1.
Strathmore dominated the No. 3 doubles match with Reyes and Salvador Andrade shutting out Luis Avila and Oscar Alamo 8-0.
“We tried out the lineup we ran today against McFarland and it worked out very well for us so I think we will continue to run our doubles like this,” Schiro said.
The Cardinals improve their ESL record to 2-4 this season after avenging a loss against the Spartans earlier in the season.
