KELSEYVILLE — Lake County’s two high school tennis teams, the Middletown Mustangs and Kelseyville Knights, squared off in the first of their two scheduled meetings this season on a cold and windy Tuesday afternoon at the Gard Street courts in Kelseyville.
Middletown won the Coastal Mountain Conference middle division match 4-1, sweeping the three singles matches and splitting the two doubles matches.
The No. 1 singles match between Middletown’s Paige Astley and Kelseyville’s Larue Furlani took a little more than an hour and a half to complete, according to Middletown head coach Tracey Kucer, with Astley rallying for a 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-0 victory.
The other two singles matches were decided in straight sets. Andrew Mikel beat Rylan Lipscomb 6-2, 6-4 in No. 2 singles while Reese Caldwell, moving up from Middletown’s No. 2 doubles team, defeated J.J. Rodriguez 6-2, 6-4 in No. 3 singles.
“She had a big jump,” Kucer said of Caldwell’s switch from doubles to singles. “She really stepped up and played well.”
Middletown’s other win came in first doubles where Lara Patterson and Nadav Dicovski beat Maddie Madrzyk and Victor Sepulveda 6-3, 6-3.
Kelseyville’s Oscar Valadez and Jaime Chavez beat Middletown’s Vinny Hernandez and Olivia Gallagher 6-4, 6-4 in No. 2 doubles.
Middletown completes the first half of its CMC Middle schedule at 2-1. The Mustangs open the second half Friday at home against St. Helena although rain is in the forecast. Kelseyville (1-2) hosts Cloverdale on Friday.
“We’re looking forward to playing them,” Kucer said.
St. Helena beat Middletown 4-1 last month in the conference opener for both teams.
