Mustang tennis turns table on Salinas.
SALINAS – Even the broken strings on junior Mark Hsieh’s racket could not prevent the Gilroy High boys tennis team from avenging an opening loss en route to its fifth straight T-CAL victory with Tuesday’s 4-3 nod over Salinas.
Hsieh – Gilroy’s No. 4 singles – just borrowed senior teammate Jacob Pniewski’s racket and then polished off Cowboys’ Jeff Hill in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, for the Mustangs only singles’ win of the day.
“Hsieh was big,” head coach Chris Yoder said. “That was a deciding factor, too.”
But with the team score knotted at 3-3, it was Gilroy’s top doubles unit of Tomas Carrillo and Ray Rivera on the court with the match on the line.
“I just told them to play hard,” Yoder said. “We practice hard and they know what to do when the situation comes up – focus in on the ball and get your serves in.”
Carrillo and Rivera clinched victory for the Mustangs – cleaning up Salinas’ Sean Hemmer and Jared Hererra in three sets, 1-6, 7-6, (7-4), 6-3 – and broke up a three-way tie atop the T-CAL standings. With Salinas suffering its second league loss, Gilroy and Live Oak both hold 5-1 first-place marks in league – but the Mustangs hold the tiebreaker since defeating the Acorns in their March 3 match.
Gilroy swept the three doubles bouts as the No. 2 tandem of Peter Adams and Anthony Christian defeated Salinas’ Chris Chin and Jarred Howell, 3-6, 6-0, 6-0; and the No. 3 duo of Chris Adams and Scott Adams toppled Cowboys’ Yom Nguyen and Jeff Lind, 6-1, 6-1.
The three Mustang losses came in singles action as senior No. 1 Robbie Marques fell 0-6, 0-6 to Salinas big man John Pettit – a top ranked NorCal player; senior No. 2 Mark Heisy faltered 3-6, 2-6 to Brian Pybas; and senior No. 3 Jacob Pniewski lost to Martin Gutenich, 1-6, 6-7 (3-7).
The Mustangs (5-1 in T-CAL, 5-2 overall) will travel to Hollister for a March 20 league match before hosting North Salinas for a March 25 match. Both contests are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.
