ROUNDUP: Weary Clementi helps Falcon boys soar into Sunrise final
Chris Clementi could have used a nap Thursday afternoon.
Instead, the Foothill senior settled for a Sunrise Region seminfinal win.
Clementi went 3-0 in singles, including a third win on weary legs to help Foothill’s boys (12-2) to a 14-4 win over visiting Green Valley (9-4) and a spot in Friday's Sunrise Region boys tennis final.
“I was really tired,” said Clementi, who rallied for a 7-6 win over Green Valley’s Jake Cahill in his second match. “But I feel good about it now. I wanted to fall on the floor and just lay down. I couldn’t get up; but my coach wanted one more out of me, and I couldn’t let him down. So I fought through it in that third match.”
Clementi finished up with a 6-2 win in his final set, even though his team had sewn up the win.
“Chris is one of those guys who has been there for us all year,” Foothill coach Mark Richards said. “He’s been pretty key for us. We were definitely counting on his singles play to get us through.”
John Qualls also went 3-0 in singles for Foothill, and Kevin Dion and Dylan Hansel were 3-0 in doubles.
Foothill will meet Southeast League champion Coronado in today’s final at 4:30 p.m. at Darling Tennis Center.
Alex Zbiegien and Trevor Bukovi went 2-1 in doubles for the Gators.
Coronado 16, Liberty 2 — At Coronado, Matthew Dees went 3-0 in singles as the Cougars (12-0) eliminated the Patriots (12-3).
Coronado’s Justen English and Xavier Smith went 3-0 in doubles, and Mitchell Smith was 2-0 in singles.
In the Sunset Region:
Centennial 10, Bishop Gorman 9 — At Gorman, Centennial (11-2) outlasted the host Gaels in a tiebreaker, advancing on points, 35-33.
J.C. Pauli went 3-0 in singles, and Patrick Bolton and Travis Beck were 3-0 in doubles for the Bulldogs.
Kyle Del Rosario and Cody Miller went 2-1 in singles for Gorman (11-3).
The teams were tied at 9-9 after the regulation 18 sets and went to six 12-point tiebreakers, which they split.
Centennial — helped by 7-3 wins in the tiebreakers by Lucas Lee in singles and Brandon Fish and Josh Arias in doubles — won more points in the tiebreakers than Gorman.
Centennial will face Palo Verde in the region final today at 4:30 p.m. at Darling Tennis Center.
Palo Verde 12, The Meadows 6 — At Palo Verde, Fernando Sunago went 3-0 in singles to help Palo Verde (13-0) earn a spot in the region final with its win over the Mustangs (9-2).
Pascal Nilsson and Tanner Berkabile went 3-0 in doubles for the Panthers.
