The Live Oak boys tennis team will end its season April 19 against Branham. That much is certain.
The Blossom Valley Athletic League Singles/Doubles Tournament is scheduled to begin the following week, but none of the Acorns qualified for it last month at the Santa Teresa Division Tournament.
Live Oak is thinking beyond April 19, however. Each member of coach Brad Leach’s seniorless squad will have another crack at BVALs and beyond in 2013. And the Acorns, winners in four of their last five with Wednesday’s 7-0 victory over Willow Glen, are already building up to it.
“That’s the motivation right now: to get better for next year,” junior Bryan Freitas, Live Oak’s top single, said. “We’re here to compete. I’ve got one more year left, got to make the most out of it.”
The Acorns’ postseason dreams weren’t exactly dashed at the division tournament. They have known since the first day of practice that 2012 would be a rebuilding year.
“The way it worked out, I had four boys out here practicing until the day before our first match (against league power Silver Creek), because we had so many kids in soccer and basketball,” Leach said. “We got destroyed. Silver Creek’s a good team, and our guys were all rusty.”
There was one upside to the baptism by fire; the Acorns were mature enough to understand they had nowhere to go but forward.
“They all came into it with this perspective that we’re starting over, and we’re all coming back next year,” Leach said. “That made it easier for them to buy in.”
Freitas and freshman Milan Le Ruyet alone are cause for excitement. Freitas is 6-5 this spring against top-flight opponents, while Le Ruyet has lost three matches as the No. 2.
“He’s a very strong player,” Freitas said. “He’s only a freshman. So by his senior year, I’d be scared to play him.”
In a testament to his moxie, Le Ruyet challenged Freitas to a match for the team’s top spot last week but was unsuccessful.
“My goal is to be number one, so I just went for it,” Le Ruyet said. “Bryan’s consistent, and he has a very strong mindset. He’s had two games where he came back to win in three sets. That’s extremely difficult.”
Leach said both players thrive on tenacity.
“Neither one of them really ever wants to give up a point,” the fourth-year LOHS coach said. “They’re always running down whatever they can get to, trying to get one more ball over the net that their opponent has to return.”
Freitas avenged a loss to Willow Glen’s top player, Ryan Triolo, with a gritty 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
“Freitas was off the track and poised to go home in two,” Leach said, “ … and that never-say-die spirit made (him) the champion he is.”
Tanner Hallinan and Blake Latos, who have become a formidable Nos. 3-4 combination, also triumphed Wednesday, while the Acorns’ pairs earned a second straight sweep with great teamwork. Mike Renteria and Ryan Rupp, and Ben Hopwood and Ian Karin reeled off quick wins at Nos. 1-2, respectively, while Geoff Ivie and Justin Schumate rallied from a 2-6 loss in the opening set and a 2-5 deficit in the second. They took the second set in a tiebreaker, then won the third in a super tiebreaker.
“It was the match of the day,” Leach said.
After a rough first half of league play, the Acorns (5-6 overall, 4-6 league) have looked like a completely different group, beating teams that nearly swept them the first time around.
Along with their current roster, the Live Oak players are excited for future additions, which could include Andrew Lu, a talented eighth-grader at Britton Middle School.
“With Andrew coming, and Bryan as a senior, it’ll probably be our strongest team for the next few years,” Le Ruyet said.
