Boys’ tennis: Dons snap Harvard-Westlake’s 100-win streak

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

In a showdown between two of the best teams in Division I, third-ranked Santa Barbara upset second-ranked Harvard-Westlake, 11-7, on Wednesday to end the Wolverines’ streak of 100 consecutive regular-season victories.

A handful of those 100 wins came against Dons’ Coach Steve Geremia, who had been winless in six previous head-to-head encounters against Harvard-Westlake Coach Chris Simpson. ‘It’s not that they played badly, we just played really good tennis,’ Geremia said. ‘I’ve experienced so many disasters against them over the years. The whole third round I kept waiting for the roof to fall in, but it never did.’

Chase Melton and Evan Teufel swept, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 1 doubles for Santa Barbara, but the turning point was when senior captain Andrew Grant beat the Wolverines’ No. 2 player, Chris Kenney, to give the Dons a 7-5 lead in sets.

Stanford-bound Ryan Thacher, the top-rated high school player in the nation, swept at No. 1 singles for Harvard-Westlake but even that wasn’t enough to prevent the Wolverines from suffering their first regular-season loss since March 2003.

Santa Barbara may not be ranked No. 1 in its division yet, but the undefeated Dons can stake their claim as the best team in the country. Their latest triumph, coupled with a first-place finish at last week’s All-American Championships in Corona del Mar, where they edged No. 1 University in the finals, certainly propels them from contender to favorite.

-- Steve Galluzzo

-- Image from http://www.sbhsdons.org