Re-Cap of 4/10/08 Match: Banning vs. Narbonne

Congratulations to the Boys Tennis Team for a great effort in a tough, tough loss at Narbonne on Thursday.  Despite some great play by so many different players, it simply wasn’t enough to overcome the emotionally-charged Gauchos, who had vengeance on their mind.

In Singles, #4 Will Guzman once again produced a strong performance, winning in straight sets.  Despite taking the losses, Fernando Moncloa produced another close one, even building an early 4-1 lead in the 1^st set.  Meanwhile, Oliver Arreaga significantly improved his scores from the previous match, taking a total of 8 games, and was only a few points away from forcing a 3^rd set.

After taking down the Gauchos back in March, #1 Doubles partners, Andres Suarez & Jon Melgar faced what they knew would be another dogfight for top-position as the league’s best doubles team.  The score & final match result was an almost exact mirror image of the first go-around, unfortunately with Narbonne getting the edge this time around.

The story of the day for the Pilots, however, was #3 Doubles, Hernan Suarez & Ricardo Zaragoza. After facing a 6-3 1^st-set loss, and trailing 3-0 in the 2^nd, Suarez & Zaragoza struggled to find their rhythm & cohesiveness as a team.  After many frustrating mistakes & a temporary break-down of the partnership, these two Pilots somehow managed to re-focus their efforts & attitudes to take 6 straight games, and 12 of the next 13 overall to handily close out the match in dominant fashion.  Their effort drew attention from their teammates & opponents as a great comeback, showing the true heart of Pilot Tennis.

In exhibition play, #1 Doubles Ignacio Torres & Justin Garcia won 8-2 as they took down their opponents rather convincingly.

Great job Pilots & good luck in another big showdown match vs. Carson next week! J