Now that all league play has ended, the Los Banos Boys Varsity Tennis team are league champions. Coming into a new league with tougher competition may have seemed intimidating, but the team stood their ground and defeated the previous league champions of Merced.
Led by second year coach JT Barcellos, and assistant coach Lynn Barcellos, they’ve prepared the team for tough competition such as Merced and El Capitan who were their biggest rivals this season. The team had an overall record of 18-3 and a league record of 14-1, with their only loss being to Merced.
Coach JT Barcellos said, “It’s a good way to enter the league…overall everyone made a pretty big impact. It always came down to one person in just about every match and somebody different made that impact…I expected everyone to do the best that they possibly could.”
This makes it the first time in seven years since the team has won a league title. Merced had won the CCC for eight years in a row, so defeating their new competition felt great for the guys. For their final match against Merced, they won 5-4 with a couple of close matches and put the final nail in the coffin.
Senior number four player Yahir Zungia said, “Making playoffs and going to the section finals at the University of Pacific was my biggest motivation. Beating Merced for the league title would have to be one of my best memories as it feels accomplishing to win the league since it’s my last year.”
There will be nine seniors leaving the team, with six of those being important parts of the starting lineup. Still, the program that Lynn Barcellos has built over the years will show to stand strong as their junior varsity team has proved themselves to be a threat.
The expectations for the year were to compete as much as they could, and the team did above and beyond that. Winning the league moved them up a division when it came to playoffs, making them the third seed in Division III team sections.
The CCC division champions hosted Placer (seeded six) on May 1st and once again came out on top with a final score of 5-4. Their next opponent will be number two seed Woodcreek of Roseville and that match up will be tougher competition for the Tigers. There is a lot of confidence in the team to make it up to the sections finals and hopefully win the Division III banner.
