The first event in varsity tennis post season is the DAL-Foothills Division singles and doubles tournament.  The four teams (Acalanes, Campolindo, Miramonte and Northgate) in that division enter players into either singles or doubles, the head coaches complete the seeding, and then an open draw takes place.  We pull names from a hat, and the only time we modify the process is if a first match pairs up players from the same school.  The winner of this two-day tournament goes on to represent DAL-Foothills at the NCS Singles/Doubles Championships to be held on May 9 and 10.

The format for this tournament is as follows: early rounds are eight-game pro-sets.  At the quarterfinal stage, we switch to best-of-three sets, the third set being a 10-point super tiebreaker.  I give the head coaches, including me, credit for knowing our players as all four top seeds in both categories have advanced to the semifinals. 

The seeds for singles:

#1 Gavin Dille – Miramonte

#2 Raihan Lele – Northgate

#3 Jonah Elias – Miramonte

#4 Peyton Eagens – Acalanes

#5 Dimitri Bazulin – Northgate

#6 Edgar Alford – Campolindo

#7 Elias Mojadidi – Northgate

#8 Saaj Shah – Acalanes

The seeds for doubles:

#1 Sze Ting Chen & Nick Owens – Acalanes

#2 Kiumars Koopah & Daniel Schpolanksi – Campolindo

#3 Charles Richtenburg & Raunav Agarwal – Miramonte

#4 Rex Pastore & Linus Wirstrom – Campolindo

#5 Lex Ramani & Nate Okulicz – Campolindo

#6 Dylan Rocca & Blake Marshall – Acalanes

All Acalanes varsity players qualified to play in the event, but a few chose to skip it.  Overall, Acalanes had a very respectable showing on day one.  Kyle Shin fell in the first round to unseeded Lindsey-Renton of Campolindo.  Though there were many good points and Kyle was in the match, he lost 8-5.  Nolan Roberts won his first-round match defeating Davis King from Campolindo 8-5.  In the second round, he ran into #2 seeded Lele.  Nolan was excited to get a game, but did go down 8-1.  #8 seeded Saaj Shah had a good day.  He defeated Derek Zhang – Northgate 8-2.  In the second round, he dominated over Munkhjin Oduntuya – Campolindo 8-0.  The bad news was these two wins earned him a match against top-seeded Dille of Miramonte.  Dille triumphed over Saaj 6-0, 6-2.  Though one-sided, they enjoyed playing each other and the points were fun to watch.

#4 seeded Peyton Eagens had a great day.  He had a bye in the first round, won easily over Jack Whitaker – Miramonte 8-2 in the second round, and then defeated #5 seeded Bazulin of Northgate 6-1, 6-3.  The final score does not reflect the incredibly long points that were played on a hot day.  Eagens advanced to day two and will now take on #1 Dille to try to reach the finals.

The Acalanes doubles teams also did well.  Chase Belhumeur was originally supposed to play with Billy O’Brien, but for family reasons, Billy had to miss the event.  Chris Gorham moved from singles to doubles and stepped in to partner with Chase.  They had a bye in the first round but lost in the second round to Bhatia/Rouhani of Northgate 8-3.  Goldwyn/Ristow also had a first round bye but went down 8-0 to Choi/Golovin of Northgate.  They get a pass as this was Danny’s first day back from being seriously ill.  I’m happy he got one more chance to play in the DAL event – and with buddy Carsten – before graduating.

The Hoeberechts brothers were back in action getting a bye in the first round as well.  For their next trick, they knocked off #5 seeded Ramani/Okulicz 8-4.  However, in the quarterfinals, they ran into a solid #4 seeded Pastore/Wirstrom who were just playing too well.  The brothers went down 6-1, 6-2 but had a good tournament.  #6 seeded Dylan Rocca/Blake Marshall played up to their seeding.  They had a first round bye and had a rough start against Northgate’s Walsh/Kavlak in the second round, but they righted the ship.  By reducing the unforced errors and tightening up their serves and net play, they went on to win 8-6.  Their prize – a date with #3 seeded Richtenburg/Agarwal – who ended up being just too strong and went on to win 6-1, 6-3.

Last, but by no means least, is the #1 seeded duo of Sze Ting Chen and Nick Owens.  After a bye in the first round, they met up against Uriarte/Parks of Miramonte in the second round.  After a few games into the match, I was convinced this would be a routine win, so I wandered off to support other matches.  When those three matches finished, I came back to court 5 where I found, to my surprise, Chen/Owens still battling.  Leave it to my boys to complicate things.  Knowing these two characters, they probably planned it this way just to screw with me.  After multiple attempts, they finally found the service box and pulled out a close 8-5 win.  They redeemed themselves in the quarterfinals and avenged Danny and Carsten by defeating Choi/Golovin 6-1, 6-1.  Next up for them is #4 seeded Pastore/Wirstrom of Campo.  

Tomorrow at 1PM, the tournament continues at Acalanes with the semis and finals for both singles and doubles.  The #1 seeds will play against the #4 seeds.  The #2 and #3 seeds will play against each other.  Winners will meet in the finals.  The others will play to determine third and fourth place.  The quality of tennis gets better as we progress to the finals.  We’re hoping to get some fan support for our Acalanes boys tomorrow.

Thursday was a great day to lounge in the sun/shade and enjoy tennis.  Thank you to our many family members who came out to support the team.   Go Dons!  Coach Rick