Tehachapi News

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A little piece of history was made for Mountain Tennis this past week in the playoffs.
Tehachapi, seeded no. 5 in the Division III CIF Central Section bracket, took on East Yosemite League and no. 4 seed Granite Hills (Porterville) and came away with a grueling 5-4 match win on the road. With the win, Tehachapi secured their first boys tennis playoff win since the late 80’s.

“It was a good win for us,” said Tehachapi head coach John Bailey. “It was a close contest throughout and we got the games that we needed to. Our kids played hard and did a great job against a quality opponent.”

Tehachapi (12-3) was faced with an uphill battle one hour into the match when no.4 through no.6 singles went down in defeat, giving Granite Hills (13-6-1) a surging 3-0 lead.

For the Warriors to stay in the contest, they needed at least two victories from no.1 through no.3 singles heading into doubles play. Throw in a little Mountain Tennis high pressure drama, Tehachapi answered the call by taking three-straight close matches in tiebreakers to even the score at 3-3, all coming by playoff-mandated super tiebreaker.

“That was the turning point of the whole match where momentum shifted towards us,” added Bailey. “To tie the match after singles was a big deal, and the way it was done really helped heading into doubles.”

Winning the critical three games were Tyler Thoms, David Croy and Ryan Grisso.
After winning the first set 6-3, Thoms fell in the second set 6-2 but was able to come back in the match-point deciding tiebreaker, 10-4. Both David Croy and Ryan Grisso also were in some pressure-cookers of their own, finishing with identical 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 scores.

Thoms teamed up in doubles with Croy to win the most decisive Tehachapi game in the no.1 spot, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 win, setting up the Warriors within striking distance of winning their first playoff game in boys tennis since 1988.

“I think it was probably the best (David Croy) and I played together this year in doubles,” said Thoms. “Our shots were just on and it was great to close it out as quickly as we did.”

The no.3 doubles duo of Wade Burris and Austin Zehr won the fifth-deciding game to give Tehachapi the overall win, taking a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the late hours of the afternoon.

By defeating Granite Hills, Tehachapi earned the right to move on to the D-III final four against no.1 seeded Porterville last Friday, an 8-1 winner over Highland-Bakersfield.

Tyler Thoms and David Croy were also involved in the CIF individual championships last weekend in singles, with Thoms receiving the no. 16 seed in the tournament.