Matadors set for title pursuit

Tsui off to hot start for Monta Vista team

By DICK SPARRER

Winning certainly hasn't come easy for tennis teams going up against Monta Vista in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this spring.

And that doesn't refer to winning matches... that means winning sets!

Because winning a match has been just about unheard of for teams facing the Matadors this season. The Mats are off to a 5-0 start in the league season, and they've won all but one of the 35 singles and doubles matches contested.

In the process, they've lost just six sets, and have won a remarkable 30 matches in straight sets.

That's quite a start, but it's the finish that's of more interest for the Matadors. They've got championship on their minds this spring, at the division level and beyond.

Monta Vista, 6-1 overall this year, has rolled to 7-0 wins over Lynbrook, Los Altos, Wilcox and Gunn and a 6-1 victory over Saratoga in league play this season.

Senior Jason Tsui has put together five consecutive straight-set victories to lead the Matadors to the five wins to open the league campaign.

Tsui made it five in a row with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles in last week's 7-0 win over Gunn.

Only senior Promod Dabir was forced to three sets in Monta Vista's win over the Titans. Still, Dabir managed to pull out a hard-earned 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-3 victory at No. 1 singles to help secure the shutout for the Matadors.

Seniors Stefan Parker and Ben Bartels also nailed singles wins against the Titans. Parker rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 2 singles and Bartels won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3.

Sophomores Robert Yee and Bastian Bartels teamed for a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 1 doubles for the Mats. Ryan Chan and Renny Chao won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 doubles and Erik Low and Dan Lee won 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3.

Saratoga had given Monta Vista its toughest test in league play a week earlier. The Falcons lost 6-1, but took two matches to three sets before falling.

Be. Bartels pulled out a 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 2 singles and Roger Chen and Lee joined forces for a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (72) win at No. 3 doubles to give the Matadors the two three-set wins.

Tsui was a 6-3, 6-1 winner at No. 3 singles and Low won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4. Yee and Ba. Bartels posted a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles and Chan and Choa teamed for a 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 2.

Monta Vista cruised to a 7-0 win over Wilcox, winning all seven matches in straight sets.

Singles wins went to Be. Bartels (6-3, 6-2), Tsui (6-2, 6-1), Ba. Bartels (6-1, 6-1) and Yee (6-1, 6-1), and doubles wins went to Chan-Chao (6-1, 6-2), Low-Lee (6-1, 6-1) and Chen-Dan Lee (6-2, 6-2).

Monta Vista opened the league season with back-to-back 7-0 wins over Lynbrook and Los Altos. Dabir, Parker, Be. Bartels and Tsui all won twice in singles play, and Yee-Ba. Bartels won twice at No. 1 doubles.

The Matadors suffered their first loss of the season last week when they fell 7-2 to powerful Menlo in a nonleague match.

Dabir and Parker combined for a 9-7 win at No. 1 doubles and Be. Bartels won 8-3 at No. 3 singles for the Mats.

Mustangs fall

The boys volleyball team at Homestead lost a nonleague decision last week. The Mustangs slipped to 1-4 in the young season with a loss to Mitty. Homestead won the first game 15-5, but lost the next three 15-5, 15-9, 15-12. Josh Cavin led the Mustangs with 15 kills in the match.

Trujillo stars

Senior Israel Trujillo singled and tripled to knock in two runs and was also the winning pitcher for Homestead in a 6-2 victory over Mountain View last week in El Camino Division play.

Brandon Dougherty singled and doubled in the win for the Mustangs and Brian Maihack had two hits.

The Mustangs took the early lead with three runs in the second, but the Spartans fought back with two in the third to make it close. Homestead rallied for two in the fourth and one in the sixth, though, to cruise tot he win.

Homestead improved to 3-1 in division play with the win. The Mustangs will visit Fremont (4-0) on March 20 and host Palo Alto (0-4) on March 22 in a pair of 3:30 p.m. games this week.

In other local action, Cupertino split a pair of De Anza Division games last week, beating Milpitas 10-4 before losing 17-6 to Gunn. The Pioneers are 3-1 in division play.

Cupertino slipped to 6-4 for the year with a 2-0 nonleague loss to Burlingame on Saturday. Jeff Almendarez had two hits in the game for the Pioneers.

Monta Vista lost three games last week to drop to 0-5 in the De Anza Division.

Blake Bridges doubled, but the Matadors lost a 5-2 nod to Saratoga to open the week.

Justin Douglas doubled and singled twice to knock in two runs, but the Mats lost 10-5 to Los Gatos last week. Ryan Katz had two hits in the game and Drew Rogers doubled.

The Matadors were up 3-0 in the first, led 4-1 after two and 5-2 after four innings. But a seven-run rally in the sixth sparked Gatos to the win.

Rogers ripped a home run and Artist Battle had two hits, but Monta Vista lost for a third time last week, falling 5-3 to Milpitas. The Trojans scored two runs in the seventh to break a 3-3 tie.

Lynbrook, meanwhile, lost 9-2 to first-place Fremont, but came back a day later to beat Palo Alto 6-5.

James White had a big day for the Vikings against Paly with three triples to drive in four runs in the 6-5 victory. He was also the winning pitcher for the Vikes.

Amir Tahsini singled and doubled in the Lynbrook win and Brodie Maag doubled.

A day earlier, though, the Vikings could manage just four hits in a 9-2 loss to Fremont. Tahsini doubled for the Vikes and Jeff Seip and Eric Barnes each tripled.

De Anza tennis

Jennifer Shem and Danijela Tomic were unbeaten in two matches to lead the De Anza College women's tennis team to back-to-back wins over the College of San Mateo and the City College of San Francisco in Coast Conference play last week.

Shem won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4 singles and teamed with Aileen Chan for a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles in a 6-3 win over CSM. Tomic won 6-3, 6-0 at No. 5 singles and joined with Elena Ivanov for a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 doubles.

Kia Mjolsness was a 6-1, 6-0 winner at No. 2 singles and joined with Becca Kane for a 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles. Chan posted a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles and Diana Keh won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6.

Earlier in the week, Shem and Tomic had each come up winners in singles and doubles play to lead the Dons to a 7-2 win over CCSF.

Shem won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and combined with Chan for a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles, and Tomic won 6-1, 7-5 at No. 5 singles and teamed with Keh for a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles.

Kane rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles and got together with Mjolsness for a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles. Keh added a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles.

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Matadors set for title pursuit