KELSEYVILLE — With a clean sweep against Anderson Valley on Friday afternoon in Coastal Mountain Conference action, the Kelseyville High School tennis team improved to 8-0 on the season with a 5-0 home victory.
“We got off to a slow start,” Kelseyville head coach Andy Dobush said. “I looked across the courts and saw we were losing all three (singles) matches. Rylan (Lipscomb) was down for the first time this season, Evan (Weller) was down, and Payton (Moris) lost his first set. I thought maybe today wasn’t going to go our way, but then we settled in and cruised to a 5-0 win.”
Lipscomb, Weller and Morris all ended up winning their matches. Kelseyville also won both doubles matches, including a forfeit in second doubles.
In first singles, Lipscomb rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the first set to win 6-4, 6-0 over Nate Burger.
“It took Rylan a bit of time to figure out how to beat this kind of player,” Dobusch said. “Nate is a ‘pusher’ who plays a great defense and gets everything back without a lot of pace. At first Rylan was over-hitting and making too many errors, but then he figured out how to exploit his opponent’s weaknesses and closed him out quickly in the second set.”
Weller found himself in a 2-0 hole in the first set of his second singles match against Kelly Crisman before going on to win 6-2, 6-2.
“Evan’s serve is getting better and he’s improving his consistency on his ground strokes,” Dobusch said.
In the most closely contested match of the day, Morris fought back from a first-set loss to outlast Mariana Zavala, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
“Watching Mariana during warmups, I thought she would be a challenge for Payton,” Dobusch said. “She had nice ground strokes when given time to set up, but Payton started moving her around the court by hitting drop shots and side-to-side angles and it rushed her and caused her to hit a lot of errors. It was a great win for Payton. He remains undefeated on the season in both singles and doubles.”
Added Dobusch, “Payton has been a great asset for us. He’s got some bad swing habits, especially with his backhand, but it works for him so I’m a bit reluctant to tinker with it this late in the season. He’s one of the more consistent players on the team.”
In first doubles, Maddy Madrzyk and Maddy Borghesani teamed up for the first time to win in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1.
“Not to spoil the surprise, but Maddy Borghesani is the frontrunner for most improved player of the season,” Dobusch said. “Wow, she’s playing fantastic tennis. You can just see that something has clicked. She’s got a wicked two-handed backhand and hit some absolute rockets at her opponents at the net. She moves great, has great instincts and is a competitor.
“She teamed up with Maddy Madrzyk who has the cleanest strokes of anybody on the team. I tell the other kids to ‘watch how Maddy does it.’ She (Madrzyk) had her strongest serving performance of the season. She puts the other team on their heals from the get-go. I can usually count on Maddy to win her service games.”
Kelseyville’s last home match of the season was played in front of a packed house.
“Our parking lot/viewing area was completely filled,” Dobusch said. “The longtime coach from Anderson Valley commented that he has never seen such a crowd at any of the other schools. We’re very fortunate and thankful for all the support. It’s a fun time at our courts and I’m glad people are coming out and enjoying some great tennis.”
Kelseyville’s final four regular-season matches are at Willits, Mendocino, Fort Bragg and Anderson Valley.
