The Tri-County Athletic League Championships are set to get
under way Thursday and Friday, and only the individual who wins the
singles category, or those individuals who team up to claim the
doubles division, can punch their ticket toward next week’s section
meet.
HOLLISTER
If anyone on the San Benito High tennis team has any intention of extending its season to the CCS Championships, work first needs to be done this week.
It’s as simple as that.
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The Tri-County Athletic League Championships are set to get under way Thursday and Friday, and only the individual who wins the singles category, or those individuals who team up to claim the doubles division, can punch their ticket toward next week’s section meet.
It’s the only way left. The Balers finished third in the TCAL this season with an 8-4 record, behind Salinas and Palma, and are forced to seek an alternate route towards CCS as their third-place standing leaves them without a team bid.
Who will be competing remains a mystery, though.
With only two singles players and two doubles teams allowed to represent each member school, head coach Chris Yoder has half the positions filled, with Jacob Garcia taking one spot in singles and the pairing of Kyle Skinner and Eric Johnson earning a doubles slot.
The remaining two positions — one at singles and one at doubles — will be decided in a play-off among the rest of the team.
Yoder expects Garcia to earn either a 3- or 4-seed when the positions are announced on Thursday, and could very well see his top doubles team garner the No. 1 ranking.
After all, Skinner and Johnson have only lost two matches this season, both of which came against non-league opponents in Carmel and Monterey.
“They’ve improved a lot since the start of the season in terms of their doubles knowhow and their ability to work together as a team,” Yoder said. “They’re still learning but they’ve learned a lot.”
Skinner and Johnson represented San Benito’s No. 1 and No. 4 singles options a year ago. But wanting to advance to CCS, among other reasons, the two juniors opted to team up this spring and try their hand.
They will be looking to snap a San Benito doubles streak that has seen the last two pairings advance to the TCAL championship, only to fall one match short of advancing to CCS.
The Balers haven’t advanced anyone to CCS since singles player Eddie Barrios in 2000.
With Skinner and Johnson having defeated every doubles pairing in the TCAL already, though, it could come down to which singles players team up as a pair on Thursday and Friday, as is often the case at the year-end tournament.
Wait and see.
“I expect those guys to do well,” Yoder said.
The Tri-County Athletic League Boys’ Tennis Championships will be held Thursday and Friday at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas. Start time on both days is 1 p.m.
