Comebacks order of day in boys regionals

Extraordinary comebacks equalled state berths at the Class 4A Region 6 boys tennis tournament at Fountain Valley on Friday.

Lewis-Palmer took a lot of the drama out of the team and individual championship battles, sweeping all seven positions, but the playback matches had their own suspense.

After the championship was over, third-place Michael Chan from Fountain Valley (the team runner-up) defeated Pine Creek's Connor Strickland 6-2, 6-2 in a No. 3 singles playback, bumping Strickland out of a place at state. The top two advance, including playback winners.

Following suit, the third-place No.1 doubles team of Josh Kinney and Tommy Aretz of Pine Creek defeated second-place Travis Titus and Ari Sugar of Fountain Valley in three sets, bumping Titus and Sugar out of state.

In the last playback, at No. 2 doubles, second-place Arthur Ortegon and Gian Sbarbaro of Fountain Valley held off Pine Creek's Jarred Burley and Daniel Jensen 6-2, 6-2.

Pine Creek's John Brandt recovered from a slow start in a No. 1 singles third-place match with Harrison's Ryan Royce to win 5-7, 6- 2, 6-3.

"It was mostly my ground-strokes that were bad the first set," Brandt said. "I felt in control of my serve most of the match, but once I started getting my groundstrokes back in, putting the pressure on him and going to the net, that's how it went."

A No. 2 singles third-place match that began Thursday between Harrison's Anthony Jackson and Pine Creek's Tom Moore was continued Friday because of a weather delay.

Jackson won Thursday's set 6-1 and the second set 6-4 Friday.

"Tom Moore was a good opponent," Jackson said. "Since we played in the morning, we had a tough match because we were still tired."

A little advice from Harrison coach Mike Armstrong to Jackson went a long way. Armstrong told Jackson to move forward off the baseline to combat Moore's short return shots.

"This win goes out to my dad," Jackson said. "He encouraged me to work hard on the court, he's given me a lot of support, and he's the only parent to come out to every game of the season."

- Jonathan Clark may be reached at 636-0250 or gtsports@gazette.com

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