After a long season, Fresno Christian’s boys tennis team wrapped up the regular season with a, 5-4 win at Firebaugh. With the thoughts of the postseason looming, the Eagles had one last chance to perfect their game before the playoffs hit. Over the past weekend, members of the team competed in the WSL tournament hosted by Madera South. Two players were asked to play singles and two teams of doubles were present for the tournament.
For the Eagles, Andrew Moore, ’16, and Zach Passmore, ’17, played singles. Jarrod Markarian, ’17, and Justin Houts, ’16, played second doubles and Reese Brown, ’19, and Nick LeBlanc, ’17, played third doubles. All teams from the West Sequoia League were present and with a couple of wins, any player could qualify for the valley tournament.
Moore was seeded a two seed and sat out the first round. In the second round, he faced the No. 2 from Caruthers and won, 8-5. In the third round, Moore played the No. 2 from Fowler and won, 6-3, 6-3. In the final game, Moore took on the No. 1 from Caruthers. Despite losing the first set, 4-6, he came back to win, 6-4 and then, 7-4 in tiebreaker to place third overall in singles. Moore was awarded a bronze medal for finishing in third place.
Passmore lost his first game agaisnt Firebaugh. He did not play another game and finished with a 0-1 record for the day.
Markarian and Houts play second doubles together. They beat Dos Palos in their first game, 8-2. After losing a tough game against Fowler, 4-8, the duo faced the second doubles team for Firebaugh in their last game. They won easily in both sets, winning, 6-1 and, 6-2. They finished 6 overall in doubles and qualified for a valley tournament.
Brown and LeBlanc filled the last spots on the team and played third doubles together. After a tough, 8-6 win against Fowler, the team faced Riverdale. The players they played held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on Riverdale’s team during the regular season, but dropped down to play doubles together. Brown and LeBlanc played strong, but could not overcome the skill of Riverdale andlost, 4-8. In their last game, they played Firebaugh and split the sets, 1-1. The Eagles had to take the game into tiebreaker and won, 7-4. They finished 5 overall in doubles and qualified for a valley tournament.
Coach Robert Foshee had high praise for his team. With a better team than last year’s, Foshee thinks the team can go far in the playoffs.
“I was impressed with the play of the team,” Foshee said. “We played well and one of our doubles team nearly knocked off a first doubles team. For the players that finished in the top 6, they will be competing in one of three valley tournaments. We will be competing at Granite Hills in Porterville. As a whole, I think we are stronger than last year’s team and feel that we can make a deep run in the playoffs.”
As the playoffs are fast approaching, the tennis team will be working hard to perfect their game and improve on their mistakes. The Eagles postseason game is not yet known, so check back for the game.
For another tennis article, read: Boys tennis weekly recap April 4- April 8, 2016.
This writer can be reached via Twitter: @nick_leblanc1 and via email: Nick LeBlanc.
