The scene was set for a rebound win after losing to Campolindo last Thursday.  Going in, it was hard to tell how we matched up against Miramonte.  We knew they had beaten Northgate last week 8-1, but the individual scores were very close.  We had the same experience with Campolindo.  Regardless, the boys were pumped and focused on playing well today.  You won’t hear me say this very often, but this is a match we should have and could have won.  I’m sure the boys will echo that sentiment.

When the six singles matches concluded, we were tied at 3-3.  #1 Owens and #2 Eagens ran into stiff competition, but they fought hard and made their opponents earn the wins.  #4 Foster got off to a slow start losing the first set 6-3.  He then came storming back to win the second set 6-1.  Then it got a little complicated, and Uriarte closed out the match 10-2.  #5 Shah and #6 Ledezma played extremely well and won their matches in straight sets.  Then there was #3 Brewer’s amazing come-from-behind win.   Tucker got off to a rough start, losing the first set 6-0.  He then cleaned up the unforced errors and became an intelligent backboard.  Berg threw everything at him; high topspin groundstrokes, drop shots, sharp angles, etc.  Brewer had the right answers for everything.  He showed patience which earned him some unforced errors from Berg.  He kept his opponent pinned to the baseline and moved forward on the short balls.  Tucker went on to run away with the match 6-3 and then 10-5.

The focus then shifted to our doubles teams.  Unfortunately, our #2 and #3 doubles teams went down in straight sets so the match was technically over as the Dons fell behind 5-3.  But another come-from-behind win was brewing.  #1 Reeder/Hoeberechts lost the first set 6-4, but they found the track and played some spectacular doubles wooing the spectators from both teams who were glued to the match.  They won the second set 6-4 and then closed out the super tiebreaker 10-4.  They are really gelling well as a team.

I’ll say this again as well.  Though we know this was a winnable match, we tip our hats to Coach Andrew and his Miramonte team as they played well.  We left the courts with a list of things we need to continue working on, and we’ll be ready for the rematch at Acalanes.  This Thursday, we host Las Lomas at home. That match will start at 3:30. We had a ton of support today and I again thank all of our loyal family members who made the drive to Miramonte.  Go Dons.  Coach Rick