Cal High Tennis Conquers Over Wolves

The California High School Grizzlies' tennis team sneaked out a 5-4 win against rival San Ramon Valley High Thursday, handing the Wolves their first league loss of the season.

Going into the match-up, both teams faced considerable pressure to win. San Ramon (4-1 EBAL) was looking to continue their four game league win streak while Cal (3-2 EBAL) was hoping to rebound from their two previous losses to Foothill and Monte Vista.

Both teams battled fiercely for every point and, in two of the matches, tensions soon escalated in response to several questionable out-of-bounds calls.

According to San Ramon head coach Andy Lutz, the players themselves are supposed to call if a ball lands out. But if a player feels that his opponent is being dishonest, he can request line judges. One member of each team is then selected to stand at center court and, if the two competing players disagree on a call, the line judge with the best view is supposed to give an impartial ruling.

On both the No. 3 and No. 5 Singles courts, line judges were requested after a series of controversial calls in the second set. But instead of ending any disputes, the presence of these line judges only increased the conflict.

"Apparently, there were accusations that the line judge was only backing up the call of his teammate," said Lutz.

Heated arguments soon erupted on both courts over the questioned impartiality of the line judges, requiring both the San Ramon and Cal High coaches to mediate the disputes.

"Both coaches were not happy with [the situation]," said Cal High head coach Fred Albano. "It was not a very sportsmanlike match."

Though no more than harsh words were exchanged, tensions stayed high the entire match-up, leading up to the suspenseful finale.

The Grizzly victory was decided in the third set of the final match—the No. 3 Doubles. Ryan Soo and Tarun Battu of Cal High took the first set 6-2, but San Ramon's Thomas Murray and Jeff Forrest came back in the second set 6-3.

In the final set, Soo and Battu took control from the first serve, winning 6-1 to seal the Wolves' defeat.

But the Cal players and coach agreed that Thursday's performance was less than their best.

"We thought we'd beat San Ramon 7-2," said Albano. "But we're happy with the result. We've got a lot of work to do though."

Cal faces Livermore and De La Salle next week to finish off the first half of the season.

California High School def. San Ramon Valley High 5-4

Singles:

No. 1, Allen Xu (CHS) def. Brody Lee (SRV) 6-0, 6-1

No. 2, Adhitya Mohan (CHS) def. Joey Baker (SRV) 6-4, 6-3

No. 3 Sam Cole (SRV) def. Kelvin Lee (CHS) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0

No. 4 Matt Soeherman (CHS) def. Riley Corbitt (SRV) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3

No. 5 Jonathan Stewart (CHS) def. Dan Shaw (SRV) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

No. 6 Vince Dagnese (SRV) def. Tedmund Chua (CHS) 7-6, 6-7, 4-6

Doubles:

No. 1 Kelson Quan/Connor Gurley (SRV) def. Leon Tejwani/Josh Rivera (CHS) 6-3, 6-7, 6-3

No. 2 Kevin McKelligan-Matt Cuny (SRV) def. Shyam Kumar/Adam Yee (CHS) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

No. 3 Ryan Soo/Tarun Battu (CHS) def. Thomas Murray/Jeff Forrest (SRV) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1