From Staff Reports: If it was drama you wanted, the Maranatha boys tennis team delivered big time. The Minutemen hosted Mission Viejo in the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals at Occidental College. Despite trailing almost the entire way, Maranatha defeated Mission Viejo, 10-8, when Drew Sierra and Billy Tan earned a 7-5 victory in the final […]
From Staff Reports:
If it was drama you wanted, the Maranatha boys tennis team delivered big time.
The Minutemen hosted Mission Viejo in the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals at Occidental College.
Despite trailing almost the entire way, Maranatha defeated Mission Viejo, 10-8, when Drew Sierra and Billy Tan earned a 7-5 victory in the final match.
Tan and Sierra, the Minutemen No. 1 doubles team, trailed 4-5, before winning three consecutive games to earn Maranatha its first finals appearance in school history.
Maranatha will face off with top-seeded Los Osos, Friday at the Claremont Club at 2 p.m.
The Grizzlies defeated Downey, 10-8, in the other Division 4 semifinal.
The real drama began in the second round when Maranatha lost Michael Mathews, one-half of their No. 2 doubles team to a hamstring pull.
Billy Sun, who had played just one set in the entire playoffs came off the bench and won a crucial third-round match with Matthew Leiva.
For those who don’t follow high school tennis, 10-8, the score Maranatha won by, is the closest score a team can win by without the victor being determined by games.
Matt Alleman looked like the No. 1 singles player and won all three of his matches on Thursday.
In the all-important team score, in the race to 10 wins, Maranatha trailed all the way until it was 7-7 with four matches to play.
They fell behind again, 7-8, but won the final three matches of the day.
Quotable:
Maranatha coach Arthur Hsieh: “I have to admit I prayed more this match than all season. I wasn’t asking for us to win, I just prayed our kids would play to the best of their abilities. A lot of guys had to overcome the fear of losing. We started this (road to the finals) a long time ago by trying to build them from the inside out. We preached winning the tough battles in life, to win the inner battle against bad habits. We are a real character team. I believe that when you’re pressed, the real you comes out and it happened to work out for us.”
