SALINAS
Jon Rudolfs and Michael Jensen came within one match Friday of qualifying to the Central Coast Section Boys Tennis Championships, but the San Benito doubles team fell just short of a postseason bid in the end.
Seeded No. 2 at the Tri-County Athletic League Finals last week at Everett Alvarez High in Salinas, the ‘Baler duo marched all the way to the doubles finals after topping teams from both Gilroy and Salinas.
But up against the Cowboys’ top team in Ty Giacalone and Steve Bateman, Rudolfs and Jensen suffered a 6-2, 6-4 defeat.
“That second match (against Salinas),” Rudolfs said, “we didn’t play like we always play.”
While Bateman was one part of Salinas’ top doubles team this past season with Adam Krause, Giacalone played mostly at the team’s No. 3 singles position.
Together, though, they formed the top doubles team in the TCAL.
“We beat Steve Bateman with his old partner 6-2, 6-1 earlier this season,” Jensen said. “But their ground game just killed us (today).”
A victory over Salinas’ top pairing would have supplied Rudolfs and Jensen with a postseason berth, something that hasn’t been accomplished at San Benito since singles player Eddie Barrios advanced in 2000.
“It was very doable,” Rudolfs said. “We won our first match pretty easily.”
Rudolfs and Jensen earned a bye in the first round last Thursday after earning the No. 2 seed. In the quarterfinal round, the doubles duo downed Gilroy’s Mitch Souza and Andrew Costa 6-1, 6-2, then trumped Salinas’ Brennan Patton and Chris Barbeau 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals.
“They looked pretty good,” San Benito head coach Chris Yoder said Thursday night.
Rudolfs and Jensen, however, were the only individuals to advance past the first day for the ‘Balers.
San Benito’s second doubles team of Conner Bray and Tony Culler won their first round match against Watsonville before falling in the second round to a doubles team from Salinas on Thursday.
In singles, Derek Panger and Mark Tobias were both eliminated from the TCAL Finals after losses to Salinas’ Farren Casad and John Hackbert, respectively.
Salinas, which won the TCAL this season, will compete in the team championships at CCS, while Bateman and Giacalone will represent the league at CCS in the doubles bracket.
In singles, Salinas’ Farren Casad earned his third straight title when he defeated teammate John Hackbert, and will represent the TCAL as a result.
