The Mountain House High School Mustangs Boys Varsity Tennis Team hosted the Patriots of Beyer High on Monday in a battle of 1st and 2nd place teams. While the Patriots fought bravely, the Mustangs eventually prevailed with a 9-0 victory. They now sit alone in first place in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) at 8-0 while Beyer remained in 2nd place with a 6-2 record. With 2 regular season matches to go, the Mustangs have secured at least a tie for another league title (4th in a row since joining the WAC).
Super sophomore Eidan Mercado (pictured) continues to dominate the league with his consistent play. Playing #2 singles this week, he defeated Beyer #2 Ryan Moore 6-0, 6-0 with a near flawless match and was awarded the player of the match award by Coach Su. Junior veteran and co-captain Daniel Zhang, despite being under the weather, was able to defeat Beyer #3 Matt Davis 6-2, 6-0 . Senior veteran Pranav Sundar wasted no time in defeating Beyer #4 Adrian Fuentes 6-1, 6-0. Junior Zuhair Mughal also won easily at #5 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Dhruv Jena struggled in the first set and won 6-4 before steadying himself in the second set and winning 6-1.
The match of the day was at #1 singles where super sophomore #2 and co-captain Aadi Rajan battled with Beyer #1 Juan Pablo Padilla. While Rajan won the first set easily, some loose shots by Rajan and some big serves by Padilla kept the second set close. Padilla forced a 2nd tie-breaker which he dominated and won 7-4 to even the match at one set apiece. In the 3rd set, after they split the first 4 games, Rajan regrouped and controlled the rest of the set winning 6-2.
The Mustangs won all 3 doubles in straight sets. At #1 doubles, senior Charan Battula playing with sophomore Andy Su Jr won the first set 6-0 but struggled in the second set which also went to a tie-breaker. They were never behind in the tie-breaker, however, and won 7-4 on a solid backhand volley by Su.
Next up for these Mustangs? A home match against rival Los Banos on Tuesday and a final regular season home match against Lathrop on Wednesday.