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RHS Tennis Team Runners Up In Section Tournament
tennis team
Some of Riverbank's Co-Ed team are shown with coaches after last Wednesday's second place finish in the season-ending Division I Sac-Joaquin Section Tournament. Their final match was played in Oak Park in Stockton, where the Bruins fell, 5-4, in a close match against Lindhurst High School. Team seniors are shown with ribbons and a plaque, from left: Carla Ibarra, coach Bruce Edwards, Daisy Ferreira, Zubaidullah Hamidi, coach Rigo Garcia, Jasmine Rubio, and Jackie Pantoja. Players from both teams

With graduation just a few weeks away, the Riverbank High Co-Ed Tennis team finished up its 2019 season with competition in the Sac-Joaquin Playoff Tournament last week.

According to coach Bruce Edwards, his team was expecting a tough time going into the competition. In the quarter finals on May 1, the Bruins easily beat No. 6 seed Orestimba, 7-2.

But the second round, Monday, May 6, took them to Sonora to take on the No. 2 seeded Wildcats. Edwards noted that his team was advanced to Division I play because of a small increase in the number of students attending Riverbank High. He said that all the other D-I schools had enrollments larger than Riverbank.

However, he reported, the Bruins team bested Sonora in that semi-final round, 5-4.

That took them to the championship round, facing No. 1 seed Lindhurst High School, in Yuba County. Lindhurst includes students of Linda and Olivehurst communities, near Marysville, and usually features athletes who are children of airmen and women stationed at Beale Air Force Base.

“In our final, we lost a very close one, 5-4,” Edwards said.

“Our singles players struggled in both matches, winning only one out of four sets in each contest.  Perhaps having prom the weekend before and AP exams causing a few missed practices did not help our cause,” he concluded.

“Also, on the day of the finals, Erik Pantoja woke up with his right eye swollen shut. After about four hours of seeing the doctor, ice packs, and the pharmacist, he was given the go ahead to play but with blurred vision out of the one eye. Not good. Play was definitely affected.”

“In girls second singles, Alondra (Ibarra) had a tight match and lost a tie breaker in the final set, 7-5, which gave Lindhurst the title. Had the two points gone our way, we would have won the title,” he said.