HIGH SCHOOL BOYS TENNIS
GABRIEL RIZK
BEAUMONT A drawn-out three-set battle in the semifinals didn’t leave Hemet doubles team Huck Rees and Derek Higgins with much energy for the championship of the Mountain Pass League boys tennis finals. Emotion proved to be an effective substitute, as the Bulldogs duo had enough heart to grind out yet another threeset struggle for a win over host Beaumont’s Kevin Rafferty and Alex Ea, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, in the championship round Tuesday. “We were both pretty tired,” Higgins said. “Adrenaline was a big part of it....We just kept each other going.” The singles championship played out with far less tension, as Beaumont No. 1 Andy Zanforlin dispatched Cougars teammate Edward Mora in the final, 6-1, 6-1, in a faceoff that felt more like a friendly practice round. “You can sort of relax a little bit more since you both are on the same team and are both in the finals,” Zanforlin said. “It’s more of a friendly match; it’s more fun.” All the finalists from the league tournament earned automatic qualification for the CIF Individuals tournament, which begins May 28 at the University of Redlands. Rees and Higgins opened their semifinal contest against Beaumont’s Richard Godsey and Fabian Pompa with a 6-2 win, but dropped the next set, 2-6. The Bulldogs duo found its back against the wall in the third set, down 2-4, before battling back to win, 6-4. “After the stressful (semifinals) we really calmed our nerves down because it just took everything out of us,” Rees said. “We already had made CIF, so we just played for pride.” Their momentum carried them to a close first-set win in the final, and the second stayed tight too, all the way to a 4-4 tie. But Rafferty and Ea held their serve to take a 5-4 lead and put the next game away to even the match despite seeing a triple-set point vanish into a deuce when Rees and Higgins reeled off three straight points. “I think the adrenaline came in in the third set because in the second set we were kind of down,” Rees said. Rafferty and Ea broke Rees’ serve to pull back to within 4-2 in the third set, but the Hemet duo broke Ea’s serve right back and closed it out on a Higgins forehand smash at the net. Zanforlin breezed through his semifinal test, only dropping two games to San Jacinto’s Jorge Delgado. Zanforlin finished the tournament with only four games lost. Mora earned his spot in the final with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Hemet’s Tristan Wetlauffer. Wetlauffer won his thirdplace match, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-3, over Delgado to earn alternate status for CIF. In the doubles thirdplace match, Pompa and Godsey defeated Joe Gallegos and Grant Anderson of Hemet, 6-2, 6-2, to earn alternate status. CONTACT THE WRITER: [email protected]