WILLITS — Kelseyville High School’s tennis team completed a perfect regular season with a 4-1 Coastal Mountain Conference win over the Willits Wolverines on Tuesday afternoon.
The Knights finish 10-0. They travel to Santa Rosa’s Galvan Park on Friday to participate in the CMC Championships.
“Even though we won a couple of the matches 6-0, 6-0, the competition was the toughest we’ve seen this season,” Kelseyville head coach Andy Dobusch said of the Wolverines. “It was a great tuneup for our championship tournament this weekend in Santa Rosa.”
Rylan Lipscomb played his best match of the season in a 6-0, 6-0 win in first singles, according to Dobusch.
“This match in particular was much closer than the score indicates,” Dobusch said. “Rylan was challenged to play a high level of tennis today and boy did he ever respond. He served well, was consistent and controlled the match.”
Kelseyville’s lone loss came in second singles where Ryan Taylor dropped his first match of the season, 6-4, 6-1.
“Ryan played an OK match, but he hit too many rally balls down the middle of the court and he wasn’t moving as well as he needs to,” Dobusch said. “He was standing flat-footed and had poor court positioning. He’ll take this loss and learn from it, so it’s not an entirely bad thing.”
Willits forfeited in third singles.
In first doubles, Maddy Madrzyk and Maddy Borghesani teamed up for a 6-2, 6-3 win.
“These girls have some nice ground strokes,” Dobusch said. “They’ve got good footwork and prepare well for each shot. They played against an aggressive net player who challenged them a bit by poaching. We need to work on hitting down the line to keep players like that honest.”
Bella Patti and Payton Morris cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win in second doubles.
“Bella’s playing her best tennis of the season,” Dobusch said. “She’s swinging loosely with confidence from both sides and she’s moving really well. Payton is also playing solid tennis. It’s a luxury to have someone of Payton’s caliber at second doubles. He got a little lackadaisical today, but it’s a bit understandable given the dynamics of the match.”
Added Dobusch, “We’ve got some things we need to work on as a team, particularly having fast feet and hitting better second serves, but I like the way we’re playing and am looking forward to the championships.”
