On Monday, the Foothill and Santa Clara boys’ tennis teams faced each other across the Ventura College tennis courts as Foothill’s team members’ nicknames were called, such as “Iggy Azalea” and “Renegade Josh,” signaling the beginning of the matc.….
On Monday, the Foothill and Santa Clara boys’ tennis teams faced each other across the Ventura College tennis courts as Foothill’s team members’ nicknames were called, such as “Iggy Azalea” and “Josh Rensanity,” signaling the beginning of the match.
The Dragons swept Santa Clara’s feet from underneath them, defeating them with a final score of 13-5 in Foothill’s first home game.
In the three sets, the scores were 6-0, 10-2, and 13-3.
The starters of the match who played as singles were sophomore C.J. Haberbush, senior Josh Ren, and freshman Peter Jespersen.
The doubles starters of the match consisted of senior partners Grant Coe and Kristofer Hendrickson, as well as sophomores Noah Colby and Dominic DuMont.
Coach Brad McClain felt that the starters of the match were strong and set the match up for the win by scoring ten points by the second round.
Because of this, the teams’ substitutes were able to get time on the court.
“Our starters clinched the match by securing the tenth point in the second round. This allowed me to sub in players, [freshmen Martin Gama, Jackson Beckendorf, Jadon Carlson, and Kevin Ochoa], [who] hadn’t got to play any matches this year,” said McClain.
Coach Anthony Unchangco felt that the team performed better than the last time they competed against Santa Clara. Although they beat Santa Clara 18-0, McClain did notice that “some players need to serve better than they currently are.”
In this game, Unchangco noticed an improvement.
“We continue to improve our serve efficiency and we feel today’s were better overall from the last time we played Santa Clara. Even though we have five seniors on the roster, we are still a relatively young team and we really have a ton of potential,” he said.
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In the first set, all of the doubles and singles players “flushed out” their opponents 6-0. This put Foothill in a permanent lead for the rest of the match.
In the second set, Jespersen won another match against his opponent 6-0, as did doubles team Colby and DuMont.
Doubles team senior Jimmy Byrne and junior Austin Gama defeated their opponents 6-3.
Gama felt that he could have played better overall, but believed he did “pretty well.”
“With my friend Jimmy, we did pretty well, [but] we can improve. We did well last week when we played the same school,” Gama said.
In the third round, McClain subbed out two doubles teams and a singles player so that the substitutes could get playing time. Because of the large size of the team, the substitutes are not always able to participate.
“This allowed all players to get some match time which is important in their development. Unfortunately, this situation doesn’t always happen,” said McClain.
Overall, the team has had three wins and four losses. In league, the team has had two wins and three losses, with two of their losses being forfeits. The team was forced to forfeit because they did not have enough players due to the CIF mandated sit-out period.
McClain feels that the parents and Coach Unchangco have been very helpful in supporting the team.
“I’d like to thank the parents for their support and patience, [and also] Coach Unchangco for his help with the team,” said McClain.
Unchangco felt that the team played well and are continuously improving.
“Our team is continually getting better, and today being only our fifth match of the season, we are pumped thinking about our future. We have a great group of players,” said Unchangco.
