Glendale, Ca. It's not easy starting a match down 0-2 before the first ball is hit. But that's where the SBCC Vaqs had to begin their last conference match hosted by the Vaqueros of Glendale College due to being short-handed. Despite this setback, SBCC played with tremendous focus in a match that would ultimately decide 3rd place in the Western States Conference.
The two SBCC doubles teams played virtually error free with Taylor Kleine and Menno Raemaekers winning 8-3 and Arnaud Vangenechten and Daniel Truong scoring a smooth 8-1 victory.
In singles play, SBCC needed 3 of the 5 matches to secure the team win and the 3rd place conference finish.
#1 Taylor Kleine came out on fire, immediately putting his opponent on his heels. "Taylor played with great rhythm and creativity today," said Head Coach Danny Echt. Kleine was able to win the first set 6-1, and was up 3-0 in the second before his opponent defaulted.
Following up Klein's win, #2 Menno Raemaekers took care of business in 2 sets, winning 6-1, 6-2 . "Menno had a very even performance striking his ground strokes cleanly and keeping his opponent off balance," said Echt. "Menno had an impressive win."
#6 Santiago Maldonado found a way to come back from a poor first set start. After being down 0-3, Maldonado gathered himself and played intelligent tennis the rest of the way, running down balls from all corners of the court. "Santi" was able to frustrate his opponent with depth off his effective forehand side and came back to win a first set tiebreak 7-6 (7-3). Maldonado took complete control in the second set and showed no signs of letting up. "Santi played patiently and showed how his wheels made the difference in the second set," said Echt. Maldonado won both sets with the second set scored at 6-1.
With 3rd place now secured in the Western States Conference, SBCC looks forward to competing in the upcoming WSC postseason tournament.
